One in 10 at risk of hard drive identity theft

[super jumbe]

Thousands of files containing personal information have been found on second-hand hard drives in an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office.

Financial details and scans of bank statements and passports were some of the data found on disks available on auction sites such as eBay, according to a report released today.

The Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, warned that people are "in danger of becoming a soft touch for online fraudsters."

Of the 200 hard drives bought in an Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigation, 11 per cent contained personal information, and around half had some data still on them.

In total 34,000 files with personal information were found on the disks.

Two drives had enough details to steal the former owner's identity, and a further four contained financial or medical information. Mr Graham also warned that data on passed-on mobile phones and USB sticks could put people at risk. Nearly half of the 236,500 cases of fraud last year involved identity theft....

[lagerland]

Well if your stupid enough to leave the HDD in old pcs then its going to happen ........


Personally when ive had to get rid of them in the past arf a dozen holes through it with a 13mm drill no ones recovering nothing off that.............

[cablefreejunkie]

i cannot believe people would ever dream of leaving the hdd inside and selling it on,madness !!!! but then people also give away there online banking details to strange information requesting e mails,,

[KDC]

Agreed! Common sense needed when disposing or selling on disused computer. Always remove the HDD!

[Canker_Canison]

Most on my PC's end up going to a family member... After being formatted.

Those that are too old to be passed on are stripped for anything usefull... Like HDD's.

It's amazing the amount on ~~~~ you can find on second hand laptops

[super jumbe]

No matter how much smart you may be we never thought of sudden death when occurred the information left on hard drive will not just disappear.

The worse can happen is our Mrs Starts clearing all you?re belonging to car boot sale or even sending all your stuff to jumble sale with all the information on your pc the criminal are laughing ready to take any thing they can get the hands on??

[Meat-Head]

I downloaed a 2nd hand lap top HDD.

had a load of photos of a family of monkeys on it!

As for mobile phones, you might one day (SHADY) end up with one with a bloke shagging a sheep and a bird shagging a dawg.

AND you find the last owners home address and email address.

Meat

[Canker_Canison]

As for mobile phones, you might one day (SHADY) end up with one with a bloke shagging a sheep and a bird shagging a dawg.

AND you find the last owners home address and email address.

Meat

I never put those videos on my phones.... ok, maybe the bird & the german shepard.

But you said you'd keep thet to yourself........