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Subject:Re: What about OLD computers?? From:"CL T" <straylightsghost -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:09:45 -0700
Oh my. No offense to anyone who is security minded, but many of these
messages are a bit paranoid.
I've worked with security companies. As a sysadmin I had to work with law
enforcement to recover data on wiped drives. I'm not the end-all-be-all
authority on this...but!
Recovering data is EXPENSIVE and very time intensive. It's not like digging
through a trash bag for tossed bank statements. Not to mention there are
much simpler methods of identity theft.
If you erase your sensitive data with a program that writes random data and
re-format your drive you will be safe from 99.9% of all prying eyes. Several
of those have been suggested already.
Another option, just install a program like CCleaner and use it to erase
documents from the beginning, using the high security options.
CCleaner <http://www.ccleaner.com/>
Oh...and simply adopt the mindset that privacy is dead, treat your
information carefully.
On Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> > Christine Sigman wrote:
> >
> >> My husband and I have a few out-of-date but still functioning
> > computers we
> >> need to get rid of. I know of several charitable organizations that
> > will
> >> ensure they get to a good home, but am concerned about lingering data
> > on
> >> the
> >> hard drives. Is there any program or technique for definitively
> > scrubbing
> >> old machines? Any restore disks belonging to these machines are long
> > gone.
>
> I forgot to say that, if you have a security utility package like
> Norton or McAfee, they have (or had) utilities included to secure wipe
> files or drives. They may call it something like Shredder or Wiper.
>
> --
> Lin Sims
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