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Reporters Find US Gov't Data In Ghana Market

Posted by samzenpus on from the full-recycle-bin dept.

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.'"

4 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Contracts by hellfish006 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They should lose their contracts for failing to wipe the data off the hard drives.

    1. Re:Contracts by geobeck · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They should lose their contracts for failing to wipe the data off the hard drives.

      What's so ridiculous is how easy it is to destroy data without investing in ultra-super-duper-mil-spec data destruction software. When I destroyed hard drives for my old company, I'd pull out the drive, take it down to the shop floor, and watch as one of our fabricators put a 1/2-inch hole through the platters with a drill press. It's theoretically possible that an expert who really, really wanted our data could have read something from the partial platters, but I guarantee that none of our drives ever showed up in use anywhere else.

      And with the old IBM death stars, pretty much any possibility of data recovery was eliminated when those glass platters shattered inside the case as the drill went through.

      Of course, this technique requires you to have a drill press or a good, sturdy hand drill somewhere on your site, but I think Northrop Grumman could afford one of those.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. When I dispose of an obsolete drive by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I disassemble it, remove the platters, mount each one in a vise and bend it by striking it with a hammer.

    If they can get data off that platter, they're welcome to it.