On Thursday 08 January 2009 09:17:09 Tony Whitmore wrote: Now, whilst I can see that putting a hard disk that has come > straight from a computer on ebay, or one that has been trivially formatted > or had files "erased" is probably a risk, is it really worth getting people > to attack their hard drives with hammers?
I'd say it depends what they're planning on doing with it. I saw a story (also I think on the BBC) where they went to Lagos, Nigeria and bought some second hand computers, and were able to recover personal information about a guy in London and his family. When they went and asked him about it, he'd just thrown his computer away. I'd certainly rather suggest to non-techies that they get happy with a sledge hammer than trying to explain to them what a secure wiping algorithm is and why I recommend they use it, only to be ignored. (Unless, as you say, it's going on eBay). Cheers Mark -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
