Computer recycling, Identity Theft and You

Occasionally, one of my clients will ask me, "If I want to sell, donate or recycle my old computer, what do I use to erase hard drive data?"

It's a valid concern. If you use your computer the way most people do - for banking, e-mail, online purchasing, etc - you should be very concerned with identity theft.

Even your own e-mails can be used against you. A dishonest person, armed with the proper knowledge, could search your system's hard drive and find every e-mail you've ever sent or received. These e-mails could contain passwords, social security numbers, or other security verification information (such as your mother's maiden name) that can be used to impersonate you, steal from you, or just make your life miserable in general.

Small businesses should be even more concerned. Financial management software packages, such as Quickbooks, Peachtree, and MAS90, and Microsoft Small Business Accounting keep a lot of financial information on the computer's hard drive. If you've ever used any of these products on your computer and don't safely erase hard drive data before recycling the computer, you are not only jeopardizing your own personal information, but also the privacy of your clients. This is a big concern for our health care provider clients, who are legally bound by HIPAA regulations to protect patient privacy.

According to recent statistics, about 45% of all computers purchased on eBay have recoverable data still on the drives. This is great news for identity thieves and bad news for the uninformed.

WARNING: Emptying the Recycle Bin is NOT enough. Formatting the hard drive is NOT enough. Repartitioning the hard drive is NOT enough.

Before you sell, donate, or recycle any computer (either PC or laptop) you should backup the files you want to keep, and then properly destroy the remaining data on the drive.

In August of 2003, one of my clients wanted to recycle his old computer. He knew that his personal data existed on the hard drive. So, he uninstalled the hard drive, took the drive into the woods behind his home, and shot it with a high-powered rifle. I have another client who used a drill press to put a few holes through the metal platters of the hard drive, which is probably a bit safer than the rifle method.

Although either of these methods will suffice in keeping your information safe from prying eyes, both are overkill. When you destroy the entire drive, you create a piece of junk that cannot be reused. However, when you only erase the data on a hard drive, it allows the drive to be reused.

Plus, there is a much easier way to destroy the data from a hard drive without resulting to titanium drill-bits or heavy firearms.

A hard drive works very much like an old style turntable/record player. There is a round metal platter that spins (that is why it's called a disk), and an arm that travels across the disk reading and writing data onto the platter. The exception is that it works by magnetism, instead of grooves.

To get an idea of how you can erase hard drive data, you have to understand what the "data" really is. The "data" on hard drive is actually just little spot of magnetized and demagnetized spots on metal disk.

If the spot on the disk is magnetized, it's a 1. If the spot is demagnetized, it's a 0. Zeros and ones are the language of machines.

If a file is deleted from a hard drive, the magnetic spots will remain on the drive until you take further action, such as writing over the data with another file, or taking the necessary actions to erase all hard drive data from the system.

That is why computer technicians like me can perform data recovery on a drive, even files have been "deleted". Even if the drive is partitioned and formatted, with a clean installation of Microsoft Windows, the data is still there. Some of the old data can probably still be recovered.

You have to get rid of those magnetized little spots on the disk in order to completely delete the data. To do this, we need something that is going to write over the surface area of the entire drive, eradicating any logically organized magnetic bits that represent usable information.

The very nature of magnetism itself is what creates a challenge. Magnetism is not an on/of switch - it's more of a gray area. Because of this, several passes may be necessary to make the drive completely unreadable. In the IT world, this is referred to as "sanitizing" a drive.

A safe rule of thumb is to use a product that either meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Defense's standard for drive sanitation. Standard 5220.22-M specifies that overwriting all sectors of a computer hard drive 3 times constitutes a single "pass" over a hard drive's surface.

Here at our Fort Collins shop, we have a few recommendations. If our client has a Windows-Based PC or laptop, we advise our clients to download
Drive Washer by DT Utilities. Drive Washer exceeds the U.S. Department of Defense 5220.22-M standard, and also supports other international drive "sanitation" standards such as NATO, U.S. Air Force, Royal Canadian, and several others.

If you have a Mac, we recommend you follow the instructions in the module called "How to Sanitize a Mac Hard Drive". It's very easy to do with the Mac OS X setup discs.

Personally, it doesn't really matter what software you use, as long as it meets or exceeds DoD standards and it allows you to boot from a CD-ROM or floppy disk. Using a bootable CD will allow you to completely erase drive data - even if you can't boot into Windows.

If your computer will not power on at all, you may need to call your computer professional to assist you. I can't speak for every computer repair shop, but in our Northern Colorado facility, we have the tools to remove and sanitize the drive from even a non-working computer.

If the drive itself is completely "dead", meaning that it won't spin up or isn't recognized by the computer, you have a couple of other options: Physical destruction (such as the drill-press method mentioned above, or degaussing the drive.

Unforutunately, tools such degaussers are expensive if purchased by the average user for a single, one-time use. It is perfect, however, for IT shops to have on hand for helping clients with their computer recycling and drive-sanitation needs.

1. Boot the system from the Mac OS CD.
2. Run the Drive Setup Utility under the Utilities folder on your Mac OS CD.
3. Start by selecting the hard drive you wish to low-level format.
4. Under the Function menu, select Initialization Options.
5. Select Low level Format (a check mark will appear) and click OK.
6. Click Initialize at the bottom of the main screen.
7. Again click Initialize.

Identity theft is big business. As the economy goes through the enevitable rough patches, it will only get worse as people become more desperate. Even "honest" people will be tempted to take desperate measures during desperate times.

So, before you sell, donate or recycle your computer, play it safe. Make sure you have all of the files you need from the drive - then, completely sanitize the hard drive. To ensure you are covered, follow the DoD standards for proper drive sanitation. Only then will your data be completely unrecoverable. After that, you'll be able to sell, donate or recycle your computer without jeopardizing your privacy.

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