When You Delete Hard Drive Files, Are You Sure They Are Really Deleted?
By Jim Newell
If you sent a file to the recycle bin or used the delete button on your keyboard. Most people assume that this action will delete hard drive files, chances are that your file has just been changed so it is not viewable and can be recovered very easily.
Why this is an important issue?
Identity Theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our society. This group of crimes often starts with someone using personal information they have found on an unprotected computer.
When a file is deleted via the keyboard or the recycle bin all that really happens in the attribute that call for the file is changed so the file is not called. The entire file remains on your hard drive until it is overwritten by other data. Hard drives today hold huge amounts of data; it could literally be years before a particular file is overwritten. Until that file, which could contain sensitive or confidential material is overwritten, it can be found and resurrected quite easily, and doing so does not require a lot of technical knowledge.
Anyone who accesses your computer could access those deleted files, finding such things as passwords, credit card numbers, photos, records of websites visited and any other data you thought was deleted. Armed with this information they could compromise your identity quite easily, and you may not find out until it has cost you thousands. Recovering your identity and correcting the damage can take years.
A recent study of just over 100 discarded hard drives, some of which had been reformatted, found more than 5000 credit card numbers. Insuring that you delete hard drive files securely is a big part of protecting yourself from Identity Theft.
What can we do to protect against someone finding our deleted data?
There are programs available that have been dubbed shredder or evidence eraser programs. They use special algorithms to find all instances or mentions of the files you want deleted, remove them and then overwrite the deleted hard drive files with random data. Many of these programs are used by government agencies to insure that data is really deleted.
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You can defend against Identity Theft; however it does take vigilance and the discipline to protect your personal data. You need to be on guard against all of the email scams, phone scans, and you need be sure that when you delete hard drive files, they stay deleted.
Your defense against Identity Theft arsenal must include strong passwords, mechanical and software firewalls, a spyware, virus, adware, email scanner, suite that is updated regularly. Make and keep frequent automatic backups of crucial files, and use of a shredder or erasing program.
You may also subscribe to one of the many identity theft notification services that are available, however keep in mind that they are sometimes only called into action after someone finds and tries to use your personal information.