Confidential Company and Institutional Data Found on Used Hard Disks (News Release)   5/31/2005 - 873 views, 1 Comment

Enlisting the help of such standard store-bought products as O&O UnErase
or O&O DiskRecovery, data could easily be detected and then made accessible on
more than 70% of the tested hard disks. Of the 3.3 million files found on
these test drives, analysts at O&O were able to reconstruct more than 40,000
Word Documents, about 15,000 Excel Spreadsheets, and around 50 e-mail
mailboxes containing their entire message stashes still intact from previous
users.

The results in 2005 are alarming. Even if the rate of recovered data has
slightly fallen in comparison to the results of the 2004 study, the integrity
of the found and recovered data is still very high.

Because a growing number of common daily tasks today are done with the aid
of a computer or the Internet, used hard disks can open a window into the
private or professional lives of their previous owners. From important
marriage documents and appointments made by e-mail, to scanned credit cards
and work or school performance evaluations, documents of every kind have been
found.

But private users are not the only ones that exercise a lack of precaution
with their data. The same has been found to be the case with companies and
institutions. As this study shows, even large and well-staffed companies have
been known to release sensitive data by way of discarded hard disks. In one
particular case, a number of files concerning credit ratings at a large bank
were found. It is doubtful that the tagline “Highly Confidential” would
succeed at stopping any would-be readers from having a look.
In fact, the study proves that companies and institutions need improvement
when it comes to deleted data security. On the majority of hard disks tested
in this year’s test group, O&O was able to gain easy access to sensitive data
of all kinds, confirming again the results of last year’s study.
In addition, the study covers the potential causes leading to inadequate
data protection. Next to careless user behavior on the computer, the main
cause cited in the study is the simple lack of user knowledge. This lack of
knowledge is only exacerbated by commonly believed myths, not the least of
which is the myth that the formatting of a hard disk means the secure deletion
of all of its data.
To prevent the danger of such misuse, the study presents users with tips
for improving the protection of their data on their hard disks. Simple and
easily implemented software solutions, such as O&O SafeErase, are suggested
here as the best methods for achieve such improvements.
This new O&O Study, “Data Data Everywhere 2005,” is available to
interested readers for download at http://www.oo-software.com . Further
information and images for members of the media may be found online in the O&O
PressCenter.