I wonder how many of you reading this could answer the following question accurately:
It is possible to recover deleted data from computer storage media — True or False?
If you answered “True,” you were correct. Short of physically demolishing a CD, DVD, magnetic tape, or other data storage medium, experts with the right equipment and software can ALMOST ALWAYS recover some of the data, even after it has been deleted, erased, or overwritten.
If you answered “False,” congratulations — you may qualify for a job with the federal government.
According to a recent story at InformationWeek, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) proved that used magnetic tapes from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) not only could be recovered, she saw workers from Imation actually recover data — and now she’s calling for something to be done about it. Part of her comments in a letter requesting an investigation explain what happened:
“Using a tape drive, a standard PC, programming knowledge, and understanding how data is written to media (which is publicly available), and a little more time than the GAO investigation, Imation personnel found the following recoverable sensitive data on these used tapes certified as clean: the origin of the tape, bank account numbers, employee information, travel expense reports, audit procedures and results, employee savings plan balances, international tax benefits documents,” Rep. McCollum said.
It continues to amaze me that stuff being highlighted on tons of television investigative shows on the networks and on cable continues to be unknown or puzzling to people who make decisions at top levels of our government. Some idiots who failed to pay attention to the multitude of “how to avoid identity theft” broadcasts is going to put us and our identities at risk. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want tax and/or credit information about ME resold on tape to anyone who might stumble onto it.
I guess it really shouldn’t amaze me. We are talking about the U.S. government here, in all of it’s bureaucratic splendor. But, really, don’t these people understand the concept of shredding sensitive data?
Technorati Tags: U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, sensitive data tapes, government investigation, just a guy who reads the papers
Government bureaucratic laziness? I find that hard to imagine. LOL!
You’re probably right. The story I linked to certainly indicated that the test recovery by the Imation people was easily done. Should we laugh or cry. So pathetic.
It’s enough to turn us all into cynics, I tell ya.
There are standard wipes that are supposed to be done on things that pretty much render everything unrecoverable. I suspect somebody was too lazy to actually run these time consuming wipes.