Identity theft is predicted to ‘skyrocket’ this coming new year. Are you prepared? Remember that old thumb drive you sold/gave to a friend? You deleted everything off of it, right? Unfortunately, simple deletion doesn’t totally remove the information, it really just hides it. When you delete a file, it’s not completely ‘gone’ until that same area on the HD is overwritten with something else.
On a Windows computer, the ‘delete’ function merely moves the file into the recycle bin until something else requires the space it occupies. Now, if you use the ‘shift-delete’ function to bypass the recycle bin, the space it occupies on the hard drive is available for other files to occupy. However, you can still retrieve the deleted data even weeks later. This is possible using third-party data retrieval software. As long as the space the file occupied is not written over and replaced, it can be ‘undeleted’ and recovered.
The situation is even more complex with SSD’s. This is due to the fact that they store data in blocks as opposed to sectors like you would find on a magnetic storage device. Overwriting a previously used block involves copying the contents of that block to the cache, wiping the contents, deleting the block, writing new data onto the cache, and then rewriting the block with the new data.
Zero-filling
Of course, there are things you can do to more adequately remove information from a drive. One of the method is zero-filling. This method is often tedious. It requires a third-party program to write zeros over any remaining data on the hard drive. However, this is not a full proof method and doesn’t meet government data sanitation methods. Even still, an agency with enough determination and the proper tools may still retrieve lingering data.
So, what can you do? These methods of undeletion highlight the importance of total hard drive destruction. The destruction of hard drives that are no longer useful is the ultimate way to ensure no data retrieval from them. In fact, it’s a popular method for compliance regulations from acts such as HIPAA. No device or program exists which can glean information from a totally deconstructed hard drive. This makes HD crushing one of the best options around.
Contact Phiston
If your company is subject to compliance measures and you want to be sure you’re doing everything in your power to prevent the leak of sensitive data, we welcome you to visit our webpage to learn about what Phiston can do for you. Additionally, if you want to ask us a question directly feel free to contact us.
