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Picking Up the Pieces
ravenousbugblatter writes "The New York Times online ran an article yesterday titled Picking up the pieces that talks about new technology that can recover information from shredded documents. Not only can companies scan strip-shredded paper and recover the information, they can do the same with cross-shredded paper. It comes at a price though - one company charges $8,000-$10,000 to "reconstruct" the information in a cubic foot of cross-shredded material. How's it done? The shreds are glued onto a piece of paper and then scanned. Software then looks for matches (in one case using the pattern of ink at the edges of the pieces) and suggests possible combinations to the operator that can be accepted or rejected."
...in the Air Force we shredded documents on a regular basis. The shredder basically turned the paper into a fine powder. We had to put the resulting powder into black bags "for fear of information being weened from unathorized viewing of the dust through the clear bags the shredded used". I always thought the computer required to piece these documents together would be enormous and would take centuries to simply match one letter from one document. The thousands of documents shredded at one time would take thousands lifetimes and by then the information would be beyond useless.
Having spent 6 months burning everything I produced, I'll tell you I would have killed for a shredder - it takes FOREVER for a stack of papers to burn, so you have to either crumple every sheet of paper you throw in the burn bag, or resign yourself to spending 30 minutes standing next to a burn barrel, stirring your mass of papers with a long metal pole. (and of course the wind always blows the smoke right towards you).
Actually, at the NSA (and CIA, too IIANM), they shred documents with a cross-cut shredder, then dump it all into a mulching vat where the documents are slowly dissolved and made into a greyish goo which can be used to make brown paper. I don't recall if they actually make the paper at the end or how they dispose of the goo, if they don't make paper from it.
:-)
If you're really paranoid about getting rid of data, mulching and consequently making paper, is much better than burning because burning leaves shriveled bits behind that can be analyzed to gain some notion of what was on the paper to begin with. Yes, I have seen most of a burned document recovered using chemical and laser analysis of the charred remnants. You would be surprised at what actually survives an attempted or accidental destruction by fire. Also, you can get better quality paper and more destruction of data by using high-powered jets to spray the ink out of the paper. (one company was advertising just such a method for cleaning paper to get better quality recycled paper. I forget just what they proposed doing with the ink.)
No, I'm not a spook. I don't work for the above agencies, but I have had some short term experience in document recovery and archival preservation, plus most of what you want to know about effective document recovery can be found in non-classified sources (books and the 'Net).
No, I'm not going googling for you. Do your own legwork, ya lazy bums!
Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
Having worked at a bank and received anti-fraud and anti-identity-theft training, I know that there is a lot of evil stuff that could be done with that information.
For example that government tax document that wasn't shredded probably has your Social Security Number, your name and your address. The SSN is one of the most prized possessions among fraudsters. Just that information alone is enough to do evil things like apply for new credit cards in your name that you don't know about. Or open lines of credit or bank accounts, cell phone accounts, etc. in your name. Of course if you haven't paid for a credit check document lately you won't see all of these accounts in your name.
That bank statement with recent bank activity can also be used to impersonate you. You could do telephone banking, tell them you forgot your "secret word" and then they will ask you about recent transactions, what other accounts you have with them, etc. and then assume that the fraudster is the genuine article. And they have access to all of your bank funds via telephone banking. They could start requesting replacement credit cards and bank cards with new PIN numbers.
At this point, you are thoroughly hosed for life and even if you do manage to clean it up, it will be hell opening a bank account or credit card because all of the fraud warnings on your name. You'll have a lot of trouble getting leasing on a car or taking advantage of one of those "don't pay until 2005" deals at the furniture store.
The moral of the story: SHRED YOUR DOCUMENTS. And for goodness sakes, use your other hand to cover that PIN entry keypad whenever you're using your bank card.
As a clerk in the forces I was privy to Secret and below, including NATO and CANUSUK stuff, the most secret stuff was reports of incidents in Bosnia/Crotia in the mid 90's, deaths, specific locations of troups etc. It was kind of fun because I would read them in the morning while posting the mail, and then see it in the news the next day. Hope this has been enlightening for you.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.