Computer Disposal

Most of us do not think of how we are going to dispose of our computer equipment when we upgrade to a shiny new computer. However, from a security and risk point of view, especially privacy and identity theft, it is vital you consider what you do with your old computer equipment.

Your computer hard disk will contain huge amounts of personal and confidential information, e.g.:

• Private Letters
• Emails
• Online banking details
• Business information
• Your web surfing habits
• etc

Some of this information you may think you have deleted but in fact all you have done is removed the pointer to it. Other information will have accumulated as a side effect of you using your computer, e.g. the browser's cache, url history, etc.

If you are a business, various countries have strict data protection and or privacy laws which require special measures are taken with draconian penalties for failure to take the require steps. E.g. HIPPA (protecting patient confidentiality), Sarbanes-Oxley, Data Protection Act, etc.

Erasing and reformatting the hard disk is not enough to destroy the information. Most deleting utilities do not work well from within the host operating system. By that we mean that it is quiet difficult to erase data from within a running operating system. Most formatting and partitioning tools DO NOT erase data, they just remove the pointers to it. If the tool claims to erase the whole hard disk in a few minutes then it probably is not doing good job – running a thorough erasing program will take anything from ½ hour to several hours depending on the size of the hard disk.

Thus you should use specialist erasing tools which actually over-write the whole hard disk many times with random data. One of the better tools for this is “Dariks Boot & Nuke (DBAN) ” and it is free. You download it following the instructions carefully and either write a floppy disk, cdrom or usb memory stick (as per the instruction on the DBAN website). Then it is a simple matter of booting the machine from the floppy disk, cdrom or usb memory stick. This will in 99.9% of cases completely destroy the information in a secure manner. “Darik's Boot & Nuke ” is independent of the operating system on your machine.

WARNING: Make sure you have backed up and or archived any data you wish to keep. Executing programs such as “Dariks Boot & Nuke” WILL DESTROY YOUR DATA PERMANENTLY!!!!!

Note: There may be a small chance that certain computer forensic laboratories may still be able to recover some of the data from your hard disk even after running such a program as “Darik's Boot & Nuke” for technical reasons which are beyond the scope of this article.

If for any reason (e.g. the computer will not power up) it is not possible to destroy the data using the special erasing software so that the computer can be recycled – then it is vital that you physically break up the hard disk with a hammer. If you are not sure how to safely remove a hard disk from your old computer ask a professional to do. Also do not forget to take precautions so as not to injure yourself, e.g. wear safety goggles, gloves, etc. Common sense must be used here. You do this at your own risk.

At the time of first writing this article the BBC News website had an excellent article about identity theft and the disposal / recycling of old computers and I quote from that article “Bank account details belonging to thousands of Britons are being sold in West Africa for less than £20 each, the BBC's Real Story programme has found.
It discovered that fraudsters in Nigeria were able to find internet banking data stored on recycled PCs sent from the UK to Africa.”

This drives home the point that you should destroy the data on your hard disk - before getting rid of the computer or hard disk in it.

From an environmental point of view it is far better to recycle your computer at an official recycling centre than to dispose of it. It may even be illegal in some countries to dispose of electrical equipment by any other method other than by taking it to an approved recycling centre or sending it back to the original manufacturer. Also consider donating it to a local charity or local school that accepts old computer equipment.

Check with your local authorities on the best way to dispose of computer equipment.