Sex, Spies and Hard-drives
September 17th, 2009
In addition, the company recently purchased a selection of storage media comprising of 100 hard-disk drives and 50 memory cards and proceeded to process a sample batch to test what data was still retrievable from them. The results were worrying as documents such as CVs and accounting spreadsheets (including names and mobile numbers) were easily accessible.
Perhaps even more worrying was the fact that many previous owners had not deleted temporary Internet files. This means that any new, unscrupulous owner could access personal financial details, such as credit card numbers and could then go on to order goods from Internet pages by simply changing the delivery address. Many of the sampled selection also contained pornographic matter.
It seems that very few people are aware that simply pressing the delete button does not necessarily mean that the data is destroyed and irretrievable. This research comes as a timely reminder to both consumers and businesses that data should be destroyed properly and not simply deleted or formatted, as this is not sufficient to completely erase stored data.
Disklabs have since contacted all of the owners of the hard-drives and memory cards that data was retrieved from to inform them that their old media still contained retrievable data. It must be stressed that all these storage devices have now all been properly wiped by 1st Computer Traders Ltd and the devices are now being used as spare parts for further data recovery tasks sent in to Disklabs Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Services.
Simon Steggles
Disklabs Data Recovery and Computer Forensics Services
www.disklabs.com
www.disklabs.com/computer-forensics.asp
www.mobilephoneforensics.com
By: Disklabs
About the Author:
Simon is an owner of 1st Computer Traders Ltd, the owning company of Disklabs Data Recovery Services and Disklabs Computer Forensics. Simon originally set up the company in 1997 with his business partner Matthew Jones.
Simon has a military background, serving for 6 years from 1984 – 1990 in the Royal Navy, (working in communications, the law division and intelligence), serving on HMS Hecate, HMS Arrow and HMS Active, serving in South America, Africa, the Mediterranean, the Faeroes Gap, West Indies and Devonport.
1991, Simon first ventured into the world of IT, selling computer components, such as floppy diskette and printer ribbons. Soon after this, Simon moved to a company that sold hardware. After 2 years in this field, Simon set up his first business, United Computer Services (UK) Ltd, which specifically sold hard drives. After 5 years in this business, annual turnover had reached £7 million. Simon took the opportunity to sell his 50% share of the business and subsequently set up 1st Computer Traders Ltd, which incorporates Disklabs
In 2002, Simon became a Co-Opted director of the Professional Computer Association, a year later becoming a fully voted in director. In 2005, Simon was promoted to the position of Vice Chairman of the Professional Computer Association, a not for profit organisation which represents in excess of £3 billion of revenue in the UK and Ireland. Due to business commitments, Simon resigned from his post as Vice Chairman in 2006.
In 2006, Disklabs invested significantly in their forensics operation, opening a brand new facility, ensuring that high levels of security measures were installed to ensure the absolute security of their client’s exhibits, and the data being examined. The new facility ensured that ACPO practise and procedures were even more strenuously adhered to whilst dealing with law enforcement agencies and corporate clients.
Simon has principally dealt with digital storage, in the roles of buying, selling, wiping, repairing, recovering data and investigating data forensically. Simon has completed various training courses in many disciplines, including courses in computer and mobile phone forensics, incident management and evidence handling procedures.
Simon’s main roles are to steer the company, develop new business lines and oversee the work completed by the forensic analysts and data recovery technicians.
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