Dangers of the Second-Hand PC Market Bank account details of potentially thousands of Britons are being sold in West Africa for less than £20 each, the BBC's Real Story has learned. The information is contained on the hard drives of personal computers exported to Nigeria, along with thousands of pages of other confidential material. Hard drives - the devices that computers use to store all sorts of data - are very easy to get hold of and there is a genuine market for people upgrading their computers with our cast-offs. Some 23,000 tonnes of electronic waste, the equivalent of about 750,000 computers, is flooding out of the UK and into the developing world every year, according to the Environment Agency. They end up in computer markets in cities such as Lagos, Nigeria, where you will find second hand parts of PCs from Britain and all over the world. The problem comes when someone with a criminal mind accesses the information that is stored on this hard drive. "Once you let your computer go away, your so-called personal computer is no longer personal, it becomes very public," said environmental campaigner Jim Puckett. A single hard drive can have thousands upon thousands of pages of extremely personal information. Damage Real Story bought 17 hard drives from Nigeria at £15 a unit and, using a computer forensic expert, traced the original owners of the computers. We found home addresses, bank account numbers, sort codes, passwords, emails that had been sent - highly confidential information relating to people's businesses. If you wanted to, you could do a lot of damage with this material. With one PC, the programme traced Ted Roberts from Essex. He says he dropped off his old computer at a council recycling point at a local tip. He was concerned that we managed to retrieve details relating to his family, car and even his bank account from the drive. "I am absolutely gob smacked that information has come off a computer in Nigeria," he said. "It worried the life out of me to be honest and I only use it for normal daily things like letters and bits and bobs." "But what it has done is created a whole picture of my private life and I think that's unforgivable." Essex Council did not want to take part in an interview but in a statement they said they had not acted illegally and therefore there was no case for them to answer. The council strongly advises people to remove all data from their hard drives before disposing of their computers. Real Story: BBC One 2006/08/14 © BBC MMVI
Computer Sleuths Sniffing Out Deleted Enron E-mail Associated Press Jan 16th 2002 WASHINGTON -- The job of recovering the missing Enron Corp. accounting documents is falling to computer sleuths whose work can foil the casual use of the delete button. They've been called on before in high-profile cases, looking for suspected spy transmissions and missing Clinton White House e-mails. And now they'll be asked to recover documents from the computers of Arthur Andersen LLP, which acknowledges its employees destroyed thousands of e-mails and paper documents about Enron. Investigators want to know who knew about the problems at Enron, which shocked the financial world and its own employees with its fall from Wall Street grace to bankruptcy. "If the data was there, rarely can you not find a sign of it," said Jeff Bedser of Internet Crimes Group in Princeton, N.J. "The closer to the time frame it happened, the better the chance of recovering the data." Andersen has said its Houston auditors started deleting Enron e-mails on Oct. 23 and stopped Nov. 9. Bedser said his firm has been able to recover Lotus Notes e-mail messages that were deleted up to eight months earlier. Andersen used Lotus Notes. Most computer users think a simple stroke of the delete key is enough to make a message disappear forever. "The general practitioner doesn't know that once you hit delete and get it out of your inbox that it's not gone," said David Schultz, legal counsel at Ontrack Data International. "That is why this is a very fertile area for key evidence in litigation." In most cases, hitting the delete button simply erases the file from general view. But the underlying data remains until the computer fills that free space with new data. Government agencies with sensitive information -- like the National Security Agency, the CIA and the FBI -- use software that repeatedly overwrites free space on hard drives to foil recovery of deleted data. E-mails are even harder to permanently erase, because they often reside in many locations along a computer network. Lotus Notes stores e-mail messages on a central server and gives most users only limited access, so a person who deletes an e-mail has no way to ensure it is permanently erased and overwritten. Andersen may also need to check personal computers used by the Houston auditors, looking for bits of e-mail messages or original copies of documents that have since been shredded in the real world. While the e-mails might not have been intentionally stored, some portions may be lodged on individual computers just because someone read the messages. Joan Feldman of Computer Forensics calls the phenomenon "data debris". Shredded paper is also extremely difficult, but not impossible, to re-create. Jason Paroff, a forensics expert at Kroll Worldwide, said his company has put shredded documents back together before, but success is dependent on the efficiency of the shredder. While the results of straight-cut shredders are relatively easy to work with, Paroff said, "there are some shredding machines that almost produce a dust on the other end. Good luck piecing that together."
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programme’ if you’re from the UK like me!), ESPECIALLY if you’re going to sell your computer or pass it on for ‘recycling’. Most people are under the illusion that once they empty the Recycle Bin, their deleted files are gone for good. How can I put this... Everything, and I do mean Everything... your private documents, internet surfing history, downloaded files, financial & personal history, and online banking access codes, to name but a few... are still right there on the drive. So if you sell your computer, or give it away, it’s a gold mine of identity stealing and lucrative fraud opportunities to the unscrupulous individual. Emptying the Recycle Bin only moves data out of plain view, it doesn’t actually mean that the operating system has gone into the drive and ‘rubbed the files out’. It’s a bit like someone taking the nameplate off your office door! You’re still sitting in there drinking coffee and if there’s a knock on the door you’ll open it and say ‘hello’, but visitors can’t easily find you without specific directions. Well, the bad news is that the map to find these ‘deleted’ files is available at every service station! Yes, it’s almost that easy to find them. They can be recovered and viewed by anyone, without specialist technical knowledge or code hacking skills, using a simple piece of $15 software downloaded from the net! You don’t have to be a computer geek with a Masters from MIT to do this. Yes, you’ve seen the cop shows, it’s all real, and a whole lot easier than you imagine! Just deleting your files is NOT enough. In fact, let’s face it, who hasn't got something on their computer they would rather didn’t become widely known? Be it personal bank account records and credit card details, or private email and instant messages (MSN, chat rooms, etc. - yes all those are still on there too!)... The list goes on and I’m sure you can fill in the blanks from your own imagination! Delete-it is here to help! The programs featured on this page will scrub your drive using algorithmic digital shredding techniques more complex and of a higher standard than those employed by US Law Enforcement and the Military, securely deleting and permanently erasing your sensitive private files. In short, your stuff will be Gone... Forever!
Computers: Your Data In Whose Hands? As our increasing dependency on computers grows, so does the information held about us by countless companies and organisations. The law protects us from the misuse of personal data by organisations. But what happens when companies get rid of their old computers? Breakfast News revealed in a special report that some well known multi-national companies, schools and universities are failing to erase sensitive personal data, even though this is a legal requirement. Breakfast's Sophie Hutchinson has been investigating. Computing Magazine's Bryan Glick came in to the studio, to give us some more advice. "It's not commonly known that even if you delete a file, the information is still physically on the disk until it's over-written," he explained. "You can over-write it yourself, or get it done professionally." Specialist software can be used to delete files which is available for purchase via the internet, and it will only cost a little to be secure. If you choose to donate your old computer to a charity be aware that your files may not be properly wiped before your computer is passed on and take the precaution of overwriting your sensitive data. Otherwise, he added, the only certain way to prevent your files getting into the wrong hands is to take a hammer to the hard drive! Investigation Personal records of school children, passwords and user names of company executives are some examples of the information found on second-hand computers. An investigation of 100 computers by the Information and Security Research Group at the University of Glamorgan found several examples of sensitive information which had not been correctly erased. Researchers bought machines from an online auction service - they discovered many had information stored on their hard drives which would be a clear breach of the Data Protection Act. The Information Commissioner, who enforces the act, says it will be tough on organisations with lax security procedures. "Companies have a duty to store personal information securely and delete it when it is no longer required," says Assistant Commissioner Phil Jones. Many second hand computers find their way to Nigeria and Russia where 'technology' crime gangs operate. It is of course possible that personal information could be added to a company's computers by a third party, this only becomes apparent when the company disposes of its machines. One company operating in 14 countries had enough data on the drives of its redundant machines to seriously compromise the company's security. The investigation by the ISRG also found that in seven cases, there was enough information to hack into companies systems. Detailed information found included: school reports, personal letters, staff records, internal e-mails and detailed financial records - less than a year old Blackmail Had the personal information fallen into the wrong hands, it could have led to individuals being blackmailed and investigators found that more than 50% of disks it checked contained personal information. Quick guide to erasing data Secure data erasure requires overwriting every part of the disk to destroy any pre-existing data. Deleting files or reformatting disks is inadequate as they are reversible processes. Look for specialist software for data removal that can be set to overwrite a disk any number of times, depending on the sensitivity of the data. The more times it is overwritten the more secure the process. BBC NEWS : 2005/02/17 © BBC MMVI
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Internet Affair Discovered... Extract from a 2001 forum post. This is real life.. not a news story... “I had a baby 8 weeks ago. 9 weeks ago I could not sleep due to contractions so I decided to get up. I surfed the net for a while and then decided to write an e-mail to a friend. It was then that I discovered that I was logged onto my husbands password. He had forgotten to log off before going to bed and when I opened the mail I found several e-mails to a woman he had been having a net affair with. I was numb to say the least. I decided my discovery gave me the right to dig and so I did. I found several files he had saved that included letters back and forth from each other. Some were short but dirty such as " mmmm your good" and some were very sweet and romantic such as "I want to hold you in my arms and kiss you soflty", you get the idea. I was, and still am furious and devastated by this. My husband was doing this right under my nose. There was I, about to give birth to our first and only child, and he puts me to bed early everynight with a back rub "to help me feel better" and runs off to the computer. I let him know of my discovery and his ansewer was "It's just a game, it's not even real". What a bunch of ****!! We had been having issues with porn for the past few years. Everytime I caught him he promised to stop but it's only a short matter of time before it starts again. Now it has progressed to the affair thing, yet he wonders why I am so cold and distant from him! I am so tired of all of these other women in his life. I'm losing my love for him because of it. I’ve told him how hurtful and damaging this is. He agrees that it is (or maybe just says that to shut me up). He goes on his daily routine like nothing has happened... and get's mad at ME when I’m in a mood about it still and says I am ‘Wallowing in it’. It's only been 9 weeks! I know that he'd like nothing better than for me to just let it go, that would make his life easier. He cut off all ties with her and has changed his e-mail address. He promised to stop his behavior BUT......... My husband still doesn't know that I know his password. Today I looked at his e-mail. And what do you know!!!! He has a trip planned to Las Vegas on business. I found a letter he’d written to some sort of refferal service for hotels etc... He asked them, and these are his exact words...." Can you direct me to what casinos are geared toward an ADULT FLAVOUR, you know..... excitement....girls"? Looks like he's planning a little fun on the trip. What can I do? How can I cope? I want him to know I know about the Vegas letter but I don't want him to know I know password! I deserve to know what's going on even if it means spying on him...” ...Now what if she’d downloaded a file recovery program and gone through the hard drive...
Browser Hijackers Are Ruining Lives Wired News 05-11-2004 Browser hijackers are doing more than just changing homepages. They are also changing some peoples' lives for the worse. Browser hijackers are malicious programs that change browser settings, usually altering designated default start and search pages. But some, such as CWS, also produce pop-up ads for pornography, add dozens of bookmarks -- some for extremely hard-core pornography websites -- to Internet Explorer's Favorites folder, and can redirect users to porn websites when they mistype URLs. Traces of browsed sites can remain on computers, and it's difficult to tell from those traces whether a user willingly or mistakenly viewed a website. When those traces connect to borderline-criminal websites, people may have a hard time believing that their employee or significant other hasn't been spending an awful lot of time cruising adult sites. In response to a recent Wired News story about the CWS browser hijacker, famed for peddling porn, several dozen readers sent e-mails in which they claimed to have lost or almost lost jobs, relationships and their good reputations when their computers were found to harbor traces of pornography that they insist were placed on their computers by a browser hijacker. In one case a man claims that a browser hijacker sent him to jail after compromising images of children were found on his work computer by an employer, who then reported him to law enforcement authorities. "The police raided my house on Sept. 17, 2002," said "Jack," who came to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a political refugee, and has requested that his name not be published. "Nobody gave me a chance to explain. I was told by judge and prosecutor that I will get years in prison if I go to trial. After negotiations through my lawyer I got 180 days in an adult correctional facility. I was imprisoned for 20 days and then released under the Electronic Home Monitoring scheme. I now have a felony sex-criminal record, and the court ordered me to register as a predatory sex offender for 10 years." Jack originally believed that the images found on his computer were from a previous owner -- he'd bought the machine on an eBay auction. But he now thinks a browser hijacker may have been responsible. "When I used search engines, sometimes I got a lot of porn pop-ups," Jack said. "Sometimes I was sent to illegal porn sites. When I tried to close one, another five would be opened without my will. They changed my start page, wrote a lot of illegal porn links in favorites. The only way to stop this was turn the (computer's) power off. But when I dialed up to my server again, I started with illegal site, then got the same pop-ups. There were illegal pictures in pop-ups." Several of the URLs that CWS injects into Internet Explorer's favorites list also appear in the arrest warrant and other materials from Jack's hearing. CWS works as Jack described -- changing start pages, adding to favorites, popping up porn and security experts who were asked to review Jack's claims said it is possible that a browser hijacker could have been the reason porn images were found on his computer. Jack said he opted not to fight the charge because his lawyer told him he would probably receive a harsher sentence if he went to trial. "They are very eager to get conviction," Jack said. "Nobody can fight those powers. I could hardly stay in jail two weeks. The cell is very small, the food is very bad. They let prisoners out only every other day for 3 hours. I do not know how people can stay in prison for years." Others who blame browser hijackers for placing porn on their computers have been luckierthan Jack. "I was almost fired after some sort of content-monitoring system that my ex-employer used on the network found several dozen dirty photos on my laptop," said Matthew Cortella, a sales representative based in Illinois. "I had no idea how that stuff got on my machine; I thought it'd been hacked. "Eventually, thank God, IT found some program on there that they said could have caused the problem. But for eight days I was sure I'd be fired, and I was terrified. I have a family to support. Jobs aren't easy to come by these days." "My wife and I separated for a time because she thought I was looking at porno," said Fred McFarlane, a store owner in Georgia. "We are religious people. She just couldn't be with me after she saw the pictures that were in our computer. I don't blame her. Even now, I know it's real hard for her to understand it was the computer that did it, not me." Telling people that "the computer" is downloading pornography on its own often provokes smirks and disbelief. "I have to say it's like insisting the dog ate your homework," said Jeff Bertram, a systems administrator in New York City. "Are you going to admit that you downloaded porn to your pissed-off spouse or employer? Or to a judge? Hell no, your honor, it wasn't me. The browser did it." Jack said he would like to appeal his conviction, but knows it will be difficult to convince people that he didn't download the pornography found on his machine. "The police found nothing in my house, you know, not even a Playboy magazine," he said. "Only in the computer. But most people do not understand that such a thing is possible, that the computer could have made this happen. Plus, with ch**d p*rnogr*phy, people's reaction is only emotions and no thinking." "I advise Internet users to be very, very careful," Jack added. "Committing a felony is very easy; it just takes one click." Michelle Delio 05-11-2004
“I am absolutely gob smacked that information has come off a computer in Nigeria” - Ted Roberts
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Internet Affair Discovered
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