Is Your Data REALLY Gone After a Disaster?
After witnessing the heartbreak both families & businesses face in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and the raging wildfires out west, it brings it all home how precarious possessions (not to mention our very lives…) truly are. It may also make you think about how you’d react to sifting through the remains feeling no hope of retrieving your data (see the article “Preparing for Data Loss” for more information about protecting your data), tossing out the old equipment to make way for their replacements… but is your data REALLY gone?
It’s true if you pull a hard drive out of the water or the ashes from a fire, the likelihood plugging the drive in and recovering your data is slim to none. But that doesn’t mean someone else can’t retrieve it.
Computer forensics
In computer forensic science, data recovery and retrieval is a main part of the job, even from seemingly destroyed equipment. Piecing data back together is what they do and data recovery can be done with some inexpensive software if the hardware is not too damaged or data retrieval can potentially cost thousands of dollars, depending upon the value of the data. This can be good news for you if you haven’t saved your data or bad news if you foolishly threw away the equipment thinking it’s no good. Your precious data can easily fall into the hands of someone will ill-intent.
Data Carving
When a hard-drive is compromised, a Computer Forensic Scientist uses Data Carving to retrieve information. Data carving is different than data mining in that data carving searches through raw data on a hard drive without using a file system. Data carving is essential for computer forensics to find data when a hard drive’s data is corrupted.
Operating Systems
ALL Operating systems, whether Linux, Windows or Macs can be hacked. Most computer forensics experts focus on one operating system and know it in full detail.
Email Forensics
Many breaches happen through phishing incidents via email. Computer forensics relies on email analysis and work with many email servers, including MS Exchange and free web-based platforms such as Gmail and Yahoo.
When in doubt, E-Cycle it out
After a disaster, feeling overwhelmed and having so many other responsibilities, it’s common for businesses to just throw out damaged computers, laptops and smart devices without a second thought to security. PLEASE let Ship-n-Destroy help you – we e-cycle your computers and laptops for FREE and securely destroy your hard-drives for as little as $10. Send your hard drives to Ship-n-Destroy to securely make sure that your data can’t be retrieved and stolen.