"Easy to recover "deleted" information"

Data security company Ibas believes that there will be a significant data security risk when approx. 500,000 computers change owners in Norway in the next two years. Most of these computers will come from companies, which purchase new PCs and give the old ones to second-hand dealers and schools.

Ignore the risk
Thor Arne Johansen, who is leader of the Data Erasure section in Konsvinger based Ibas, says that: "Our experience is that many public and private companies are not concerned about protecting sensitive data when disposing of old computer equipment. The challenge is how Norwegian companies can prevent sensitive information from going astray." Ibas is one of the world's leading companies in Data Recovery and Data Erasure.

Ignorance
Those who dispose of PCs do not know or do not believe that it is possible to recover information, which to all intents and purposes has been deleted from the hard disk. There are currently several ways of "deleting" data from a medium, but none of these guarantees that the information is gone for good. The most common methods are to delete files using the DOS commands, delete and format. These commands only update a table, which tells the operating system that the file has been deleted. The contents of the file exist even if the average user cannot retrieve these.

There are also other businesses, which only trust mechanical deformation tools. Even if a storage medium has been physically damaged, the information is still available and it is still possible to recover parts or all data lying on a physically damaged medium.

Found everything on a "formatted" hard disk
Tormod Nymoen, Marketing Manager in Ibas AS says that: "You don't need 20 years of experience to find data on old PCs or to read hard disks. On a used hard disk that Ibas received from Germany last week, the former owner had tried to delete data by formatting the disk and resinstalling Windows. This didn't help very much." Via shareware from the Internet Ibas found, among other things, user names and various passwords, enough information to assume the owner's identity on the Internet or at worst to be able to use the user's online bank. Criminals intent on exploiting a former owner's ignorance, would have no problem using these methods," Nymoen says.

Concerns all businesses
"Norwegian managers are generally very concerned about data security, but this is more than just protection against viruses and hacking on the Internet. The need for data erasure will vary depending on the security level and routines and the value of the information, but there is a need for data erasure in all types of businesses. And what is most important is that secure data erasure is taken seriously." Nymoen says.