Boo! Now Buy My Erase Utility!

Data InSight, a data recovery company, has issued a press release designed to scare you into buying their file erase utility: Dr. Wiper. They quite rightly point out that identity theft is a serious and growing problem. However, after getting you rattled with the real threat, they then go on to imply that those nasty old criminals are likely to perform that identify theft by getting hold of your computer's disk drive. Baloney.

How identity thieves get your credit card numbers? Well, a surprising number of them are methamphetamine addicts, so running a $100,000 data recovery machine on your disassembled hard disk just ain't too likely a scenario. They prefer some decidedly low-tech solutions, such as driving up and emptying out your mailbox to get your credit card statements. Another technique is to employ other addicts to dig through dumpsters (or even the city dump!) for your credit card statements. No, nothing you do to your hard disk is going to much lower the risk of having your identity stolen by a drug addict (but saving or shredding your financial statements and buying a locked mailbox can help).

Of course, there are also some high-tech groups that like to steal credit card numbers. But their preferred method is to break into the computers of companies that you do business with. After all, why would they want to get credit card numbers one customer at a time, when breaking into the right computer can give them hundreds, or even thousands of numbers in one whack! Again, you could erase your hard disk every 10 minutes and it wouldn't drop the odds of that route of identity theft much.

OK, but suppose you don't believe me and you're really paranoid and you need to erase that file that contains a credit card number (why exactly were you storing this in a file?). Just edit the file, change the credit card number to X's, and save the file before you delete it. Voila! Or, suppose you're going to give that computer away or donate it to someone. Then format the hard disk. Or, just take the hard disk out and squeeze its guts out in a vice, and let the recipient of your donation spring for $50 for a new hard disk (which will be much bigger than the one you had in there anyway.

Now I'll be the first to admit that saving X's over a credit card number in a file or formatting a hard disk are not absolute, ultra-secure ways of removing the data so that no one can ever get it back. But I can guarantee you it's going to take some darned expensive equipment to recover the data after these very simple measures that don't require you to buy software from anybody. And really, if the FBI or the CIA wants the information you're putting on your hard disk, you've got much bigger problems to worry about.

March 28, 2005March