Data Recovery Company Destroying Data on Purpose
Data InSight, a data recovery company, releases a data destruction tool to fight Identity theft.
(PRWEB) March 29, 2005 -- Most people do not realize how easy it is for
criminals to obtain our personal data without having to go into or break into
our homes. In public places, criminals can use "shoulder surfing" watching
you from a nearby location as you punch in your card number or listen in
on your conversation if you give your credit-card number over the telephone to a
rental car company.
Dumpster diving, going through garbage cans or a
communal dumpster - to obtain copies of checks, credit card or bank statements,
or other records that typically bear your name, address, and even your telephone
number, is big business. These types of records make it easier for criminals to
get control over your accounts and assume your identity. Pre-approved credit
cards you receive in the mail, but casually discard without shredding, can give
criminals an opportunity to activate the cards for their use without your
knowledge.
In recent years, the Internet has become an appealing place
for criminals to obtain identifying data, such as credit card and banking
information. In the newborn rush to explore the exciting features of the
Internet, many people respond to unsolicited E-mail that promise free goodies
but require personal information, without realizing that in many cases, the
requester's only motive is to get to discover your identity. In many cases,
criminals have used computer technology to obtain large amounts of personal
data, and literally hundreds of millions in cash.
With enough information
about an individual, a criminal can take over that individual's identity to
produce a steady revenue stream: for example, applications for loans and credit
cards, withdrawals from bank accounts, use of telephone calling cards, or
getting other goods and services. Most hard core criminals are organized, this
is a business for them, and take steps to ensure that bills for the falsely
obtained credit cards, or bank statements showing the unauthorized withdrawals,
are sent to an address other than the victim's. The victim may not become aware
of what is happing until the criminal has inflicted substantial damage to the
victim's assets, credit, and reputation. Companies are getting bit as well.
The easiest way for criminals to get your information is from you. Many
people have computers and most people upgrade there PC's or hard drives every
two or three years. With the advent of the internet and ecommerce, online retail
sales exceed $70 Billion dollars in 2004 and are rising every year. "All those
credit card numbers and bank account numbers are stored on peoples hard drives."
said Rick Dignard, a data recovery specialist with Data InSight (www.DataInSight.ca) - a data
recovery and destruction firm. "I see PC's at the curb on garbage day every
week. You can find used PC's at garage sales and flea markets. People think they
are safe by deleting their files from the hard drives. Some people are more
technically savvy and will format their hard drives to erase their information.
But they're not really erasing anything." Dignard said. "People sell their PCs
and are giving their personal information away with it." He added. "Almost every
hard drive we ever tested revealed someone's personal information. At Data
InSight, we recover deleted files from viruses, formatted and damaged hard
drives in the course of a normal business day. But you don't have to be a
computer scientist to be able to do it. Just google 'Data Recovery' and you'll
find many downloadable shareware programs that can recover deleted files for
you. It's easy as pie".
If deleting your word or text documents with all
your passwords, pin numbers, account numbers, birthdays, and even your outlook
folders doesn't work, how can you be safe from identity theft? "We created DR.
WIPER to solve that problem." Dignard said. "Dr. Wiper changes deleted data so
that even if it's recovered, it's useless to criminals. It's important to note
that Dr. Wiper overwrites the data many times. Once the data is changed, Credit
Card Number 1234 becomes 0000." Once you overwrite a file's data, you can not
access it anymore. But that doesn't mean the data is not recoverable. That's why
multiple overwrites are so important. There are two ways that overwritten data
on a hard drive can still be read.
When a read/write head writes a bit
(information) to a disk, it applies sufficient signal strength to set the bit,
but not so much that adjoining areas are affected. That's what makes a modern
hard drive capable of storing so much data. But because the signal isn't strong
enough to saturate the media, the signal strength is affected by the data
previously stored in that location. When a 1 bit is overwritten with a 0, the
signal strength is weaker than it would be if the last value was 0. Very
specialized, and expensive in the extreme, hardware does exist that can detect
the exact signal strength that can obtain a ghost of the previous data. This
process can be repeated up to seven times, so to guarantee the elimination of
ghost images, data must be overwritten more than seven times, each time with
random data. But at seven overwrites we're talking about national security
issues, and it's easier to disintegrate the drive.
The second data
recovery technique takes advantage of the read-write head not being positioned
in exactly the same spot for all write operations. This allows experts to detect
the previous setting around the edges of the track-called shadow data.
Repeatedly overwriting data also will overwrite these border
areas.
Knowing that your data can be recovered is comforting. Unless you
wanted it gone for good. The U.S. Department of Defense's standard for
sanitizing hard drives, is detailed in the National Industrial Security Program
Operating Manual, also known as DOD 5220.22-M. The manual calls for overwriting
data 3 times - with a single 8-bit character, then with the character's
complement (0s for 1s and 1s for 0s), and finally with random bits. This method
is not approved for sanitizing media that contains top secret information,
however. Such disks must either be degaussed (demagnetized) or physically
destroyed.
To thwart personal identity theft and fraud, Dr. Wiper does
the job quickly, is easy to use, and could ultimately save you thousands of
dollars, and years of grief.
For additional information, visit www.DataInSight.ca
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb222544.htm