Object lesson in info control

From: Eliyahu Rooff (lrooff_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 06/20/04 

Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 23:30:10 -0700

I bought a pair of laptop computers at a yard sale this week. Toshiba
Satellites, one with an OS problem that wouldn't boot up; the second
with a damaged screen. I figured it was worth $5 apiece to see if I
could combine them into a good unit to send to my daughter.

Anyhow, the consolidation went well and I had some surprises exploring
the results. The biggest surprise was that it's filled with personal
information and other files from the lady who sold it. I'll reformat the
HD after I stop by her house tomorrow and give her a "pep talk" about
information security. Meanwhile, I have, among other things, her and
her father's medical records and history, her own resume, the letter of
acceptance from the health management firm that hired her ($85K plus
perks sure looks nice for someone with an MA), client information, her
complete address book, her financial records, two years worth of
corporate e-mail, confidential corporate information from her current
and previous employers, about 36,000 temporary internet files, and tons
of other stuff. It apparently never occurred to her that having a
defective display doesn't clean out the hard drive. In fact, I found all
this by hooking it up to a monitor before I even started working on the
thing. All I can say is that she's fortunate that I'm an honest person,
since I pretty much bought her whole life from her for five bucks.

Anyone who gets rid of a computer needs to either reformat the hard
drive, use a good scrubber program or, if you can't boot it up for some
reason, dismantle and destroy the hard drive if it has anything more
than games and recipes on it.

Eliyahu

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