HOUSTON—Tim Driver is a big believer in technology.
“I can’t live without it and not many people can live without it because this is the age of communication,” he said.
He relies on computers for his engineering work. Imagine his surprise when he bought a used hard drive—and found someone else’s information on it.
“It’s enough to scare you, first of all. It’s an eye-opener,” he said.
Driver’s experience is more common than you may think.
Imagine buying a used computer and discovering a cache of illegal pornography.
Every year, the Harris County District Attorney's Office prosecutes dozens of child pornography cases. In some of those cases, previously-owned hard drives have helped prosecutors win convictions.
“If I go back as a forensic examiner and I look at the computer later, as long as that area of the hard drive hasn’t been written over with other information, I can still recover that particular file,” said Eric Devlin, Assistant Harris County District Attorney.
It’s more than just pornography. A growing number of people are finding sensitive, personal information on used computers and hard drives: passwords, bank account information and Social Security numbers. They are all things that can compromise a person’s identity.
Ryan Dusek is head of the FBI’s regional computer forensics lab.
He showed us how easy it was to recover deleted files from a computer.
They appear to be gone from the desktop—but they’re still on the hard drive.
It’s a misconception that has cost millions of Americans dearly.
“People can do background checks on you based on the information that they get. And they don’t have to get it off of one document. [It] could come from several documents and they could piece it together and really get a good life history of who you are and what you do,” said Dusek.
In 2008, more than 10 million Americans were victims of identity theft, up 22 percent from 2007.
Some of the stolen information was stored on personal hard drives.
“We see a lot more. Probably 10, 15 computers a month, maybe more,” said Jack Wright, Wright Pawn & Jewelry Co.
As the recession has rolled on, Wright has seen a jump in the number of computers and hard drives pawned for cash. Wright wipes the contents of a used computer or hard drive before he resells it. Not every pawn shop does.
“It’s important that people understand that if they’ve got a computer and they don’t know how to clean it up before they either sell it or dispose of it they need to learn,” said Wright.
“This issue is getting bigger and bigger because more people have not only one computer [but] two, three or four computers within your home,” said Michael Garfield. Michael Garfield is known to radio listeners as The High-Tech Texan.
“There are programs out there. Some of them are actually free. That you can download. And what it does is it goes in and literally wipes out your hard drive,” explained Garfield. “And, in the worst case scenario, the last case, if you [don’t] want anybody to touch your data, take your hard drive out, dispose of it properly, including drilling a hole through it.”
Engineer Tim Driver has a different way.
“If I were going to destroy this drive I would take it onto a concrete patio or a driveway and slap it down as hard as I can a couple of times as hard as I can and that’ll destroy it,” he said.
It sounds extreme, but it’s peace of mind, given the same technology he and so many others depend on has the potential for danger.
