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Reporters Find US Gov't Data In Ghana Market
narramissic writes "'Hundreds and hundreds of documents about government contracts,' were found on a hard drive purchased at a market in Ghana for the bargain basement price of $40, said Peter Klein, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia, who led an investigation into the global electronic waste business for the PBS show Frontline. The hard drive had belonged to US government contractor Northrop Grumman and in a made-for-TV ironic twist, 'some of the documents talked about how to recruit airport screeners and several of them even covered data security practices,' Klein said. 'Here were these contracts being awarded based on their ability to keep the data safe.'"
Yet another example of some bonehead "disposing" of old equipment without wiping the data first. Time to start cranking out those Pulitzer prizes. ;)
some of the documents talked about how to recruit airport screeners
It contained a link to monster.com?
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
I think it's asking a bit much of the US taxpayer that he should be required to go to a local market in Ghana to buy the info. It should be provided by the government.
Besides, this is a company providing the info. I'm not really much into socializing everything, but dammit, there are some things that belong into government hands!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
thermite, lets see them get data out of a pile of slag
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
My methode is much better. I install windows on it, have internet explorer start automaticly and open Slashdot. By the time they're done, the data is way to old to be of any relevance.
The rest of the drive I fill up with the combine works of David Hasselhof. Cruel, but effective.
Instead of using illegal wiretaps, the NSA should just buy every drive that is sold on eBay. Just think of the information they could mine out of them!
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
I haven't tested this myself but I think something like an oxy-acetylene cutter can be pretty effective and fast.
;).
It will take a lot of effort to recover the data from the resulting molten puddles of metal
If you want to wipe very many hard drives at a go, there's always stuff like thermite, furnaces and bessemer converters.