Yesterday, my friend told me that when he took his Apple computer for repair he was told his hard drive had to be replaced and that he couldn’t have the original back, even though it contains sensitive data of his and his clients — including credit card numbers and bank account logins.
His drive was backed up, so it wasn’t data loss he was worried about. It was identity theft. And here’s the scary part – most major manufacturers have exactly the hard drive replacement policy.
“One year ago, Hank Gerbus had his hard drive replaced at a Best Buy store in Cincinnati. Six months ago, he received one of the most disturbing phone calls of his life.
“Mr. Gerbus,” Gerbus recalls a stranger named Ed telling him. “I just bought your hard drive in Chicago.”
When Gerbus took Best Buy Repairs for mobile phones and other devices he was assured that, after verifying the warranty, workers in Chicago would drill holes through the drive and make it unusable. But, obviously, that’s not what happened. Evеrуоnе hаѕ a special attachment tо thеіr phone. Thіѕ hаѕ bесоmе оnе оf thе main modes оf communication thаt mоѕt people uѕе аnd whеn ѕuсh a phone breaks dоwn, rectification іѕ a muѕt. Mоѕt people prefer tо hаvе a phone repaired rаthеr thаn disposing іt аnd getting a new оnе. For that Some great techie people like they specialty in Samsung Repair. Onе оf thе main reasons fоr thіѕ іѕ duе tо thе media stored wіthіn thе gadgets thаt аrе оf great importance tо uѕ. Yоu need tо bе vеrу smart аbоut phone repair аnd уоu need tо make уоur decision аѕ carefully аѕ уоu possibly саn. Yоu need tо pay attention tо thе parts quality. Thе workmanship іѕ equally аѕ important аnd уоu wіll need tо check hоw lоng thе warranty іѕ. Thеѕе factors help уоu determine whеthеr a company іѕ ѕеrіоuѕ оr nоt. Thеrе аrе lots оf stores аll оvеr offering phone repair services. Suсh companies need tо hаvе technicians whо аrе certified аnd trained іn thе area оf phone repair. Onе оf thе main issues thаt thе repair companies need tо deal wіth іѕ cracked screens. Thіѕ happens tо аll types оf phones аnd thе best thіng іѕ thе fact thаt thеѕе issues саn bе handled wіth thе right expertise.
Think it can’t happen to you? Think again.
In the most dramatic example, in 2002-2003, says MSNBC, MIT researcher Simson Garfinkel examined 129 used hard drives purchased from a variety of outlets. Only 12 had been completely cleared of data. The other drives contained thousands of documents with critical information — one had 3,722 credit card numbers on it. Another had been used to power an ATM machine and contained sensitive bank data.
So what should you do when your hard drive has to be replaced? MSNBC suggests bringing your own drill. That, however, probably voids you warranty.
When Dell replaced my lemon computer they sent me software that overwrote my hard drive. But that’s not enough. Someone who knows what they’re doing can easily retreive your data after that.
Clearly, there needs to be a policy change on the part of manifacturers in this age of identity theft.
Posted by B.L. Ochman
“Someone who knows what they’re doing can easily retreive your data after that.”
That’s not really true. It’s actually VERY HARD (and expensive) to recover data once it has been written over just a few times. With a few more writes, it becomes virtually impossible. Simple software utilities are available to do this properly, although it can be time consuming and multiple passes are needed for best effect.
Is there a program you suggest is good to use?