One in five second-hand PCs finding their way onto the
resale market contain sensitive data left on their hard discs by
the previous owner, an international study has
revealed.
Research by BT, the University of Glamorgan in Wales and Edith
Cowan University in Australia, has found that although 41% of the
hard discs studied were unreadable, 20% contained sufficient
information to identify individuals.
The research, based on the acquisition of 300 PCs from auctions,
computer fairs and online purchases, also found that 5% of the
machines held commercial information on organisations, and 5% held
"illicit data".
Some of the information contained on the computers included
payroll information, mobile telephone numbers, copies of invoices,
employee names and photos, IP addresses, network information,
illicit audio and video files, and financial details, including
bank and credit card accounts.
This is the second year running that the research has been
conducted. Although the results showed that there had been an
improvement in the number of PC owners who erased data properly,
the researchers said a large number of the hard discs examined
contained significant volumes of sensitive information.
Despite widening security awareness, more regulations and
significant publicity, some organisations have not modified their
procedures to ensure that information is removed effectively before
computers are disposed of, said the researchers.
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