This is what happens  when you don't take proper care to make sure that your hard drives are securely wiped:

Imagine Bill Ries-Knight's surprise when he purchased a supposedly new hard drive on eBay only to discover it contained information from the Arkansas Democratic Party.

As it that weren't bad enough, Ries-Knight, who lives in Stockton, Calif., said none of the information was encrypted and only a small amount of it was password protected.

In a telephone interview, Ries-Knight, a computer technician, said that while he didn't look at all the files on the drive, he did determine that the data included the private cell phone numbers of Democratic members of Arkansas' congressional delegation and of financial contributors to the party, including U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, as well as U.S. Reps. Marion Berry, Mike Ross and Vic Snyder.

Ries-Knight provided Computerworld with screenshots of the hard drive as well as other information documenting his claims.

Really, it's not that tricky to delete your data properly.

This entry was posted by the PC Doctor on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 18:38 and is filed under Stay Secure, PC Doctor's Thoughts, PC Doctor's Useful Links. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.