Into the bin it goes !
It is generally recommended that when you throw away house rubbish that you do not include intact personal information. To avoid electronic dumpster diving and people getting your (PII) such as bank accounts, NI numbers, ID and such. This is because naughty people can and will look through bins to seek out such information in order to steal, set up loans etc. Most people rip up documents or use paper shredders to obliterate sensitive information, thus preventing opportunistic criminals from gleaning anything important.
While many are aware that their computers contain important information, personal files, pictures, work and so on, not everybody knows quite how difficult it is to actually delete files as they can be quite pernicious.
Select a file, hit delete, no of course it’s not gone. Most operating systems include some recycle bin function, which serves to hold “deleted” files for some period in case you wish to recover them. At this stage, they are not even slightly deleted. Emptying this bin seemingly removes the file permanently, however all that really happens is that the computer removes all references to it, but the underlying string of 1’s and 0’s still exists on your hard drive. This is true for almost any file that is removed, in fact many copies of deleted files can exist. There are many programs and tools that can recover deleted files, they are readily available, many of them are free and are simple to use. This can be handy if you accidentally lose your work, but it’s just as useful to malicious actors.
If you intend to sell or otherwise dispose of your computer, it is strongly recommended that you fully wipe the drive beforehand. Windows has a built-in reset function that allows you to essentially paint over your whole drive to annihilate all data, leaving no traces behind. This cannot be undone so caution is advised. If you don’t want to wait hours there is always the backup option – liberal application of hammers.
If you have any concerns about data remnants and information security please contact us.
Featured image by Steve Johnson https://www.pexels.com/photo/focus-photo-of-yellow-paper-near-trash-can-850216/
Ben Parker – byline and other articles
