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> The one glaring issue here, is that this machine’s hard drive has not been cleaned out. I bought it from a computer recycling company so I would have expected
by bdcravens 4y ago
> The one glaring issue here, is that this machine’s hard drive has not been cleaned out. I bought it from a computer recycling company so I would have expected the hard drive to been erased. But a quick skim of the drive and I can find documents, emails and unfortunately even porn.
This is probably pretty common, and there's so much opportunity for abuse. I can only assume that for all of the security out there, a trip to thrift stores and garage sales would keep your average identity thief busy for very little money.
- h2odragon 4y agoPeople throw their PCs away. Many places gather "e-waste" in special piles for recycling. Just digging through that pile will get you more than you wanted.
- sushiburps 4y agoAt the height of bitcoin I wonder if the value of e-waste magnetic storage should have technically been higher due to the possibility of salvaging a lost wallet. Like ore mining, but for data.
- harvey9 4y agoLike this "Newport man's plea to find £210m hard drive in tip" https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55658942 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-55658942
- notjulianjaynes 4y agoI have not exploited this but can say with certainty that it would be an effective means of getting things like online banking credentials. But I imagine a venn diagram of people who have a local wallet and those who wipe or destroy their drive before recycling an old computer is extremely close to a circle.
- fortran77 4y agoNot that I ever have anything untoward on my computers, but this is why I sledgehammer all my PC drives before recycling them. (My biggest fear is there's enough information to get access to a bank account, or otherwise impersonate me.) Today, I use whole-disk-encryption on everything, but I still wonder if there's ever a hidden partition or unallocated space with something on it, and it's not worth worrying about it.
- makapuf 4y agoThis seems unneeded waste, maybe 10 random complete writes (or/and usage of paranoid safe deletion utilities) would be sufficient to erase the disk effectively?
- fortran77 4y agoThat requires connecting the drive to a working computer and hours of time. Compared to several quick blows. The metals in the drive can still be recycled even if the glass platters are shattered.
- BenjiWiebe 4y agoSince when are the platters glass?
- fortran77 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive_platter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive_platter
- roughly 4y agoHuh, TIL. And a link from there to explain why: https://books.google.com/books?id=BjoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=hard+disk+glass&pg=PT7 https://books.google.com/books?id=BjoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=hard+disk+...
- crazygringo 4y agoI had no idea, but it turns out they're a mix: > Platters are typically made using an aluminium, glass or ceramic substrate. As of 2015, laptop hard drive platters are made from glass while aluminum platters are often found in desktop computers. > In 1990, Toshiba released the MK1122FC, the first hard drive to use a glass substrate... It was originally designed for laptops, for which the greater shock resistance of glass substrates are more suitable.
- deleted 4y ago
- indymike 4y agoWhen I need to destroy a hard drive, I use 1TBSP of Thermite (or stump remover if you go to the local ag supply store). Of course, the drive isn't very useful after, but it's so much fun.