What's on your hard drive? Aunt Emily's Cream Cheese Cupcake Recipe? Various documents and spreadsheets that were developed over the three or four years you have been using and storing information on that computer? Maybe company proprietary information that you might have even forgotten where it was stored on the hard drive. If you use your computer at all for personal use like accessing your bank statement or 401K account or even tax filing over the past several years, that information is stored almost forever. Maybe you can't find it because you don't remember the file name, but believe me when I say this – SOMEONE CAN!

What happens when you replace your computer? Does your IT guy cart in the new computer, unplug the old computer, plug in the new and disappear around the corner with the old, never to be seen again files? Do these files have a lot of information about you and your company that might be valuable to someone who knows how to extract that information better than you? You are probably way too excited about the speed and capabilities of your new unit that by the time the old computer disappears around the corner, it is completely forgotten. But what happens to the data?

Maybe the data is "deleted" by that IT professional before it is resold to someone in your office for her son's personal use at college. Maybe it was "erased" by strong magnetic currents (called degaussing) and "recycled". Maybe someone made a half hearted attempt to delete some of the files before sending it off to parts unknown for "destruction" or recycling.

Many companies and government agencies are becoming aware of the problem and are taking measures to solve it FOREVER! What is the solution? Shredding the hard drive to unusable small pieces.
HIPAA Laws require complete destruction of confidential material and banks are more and more concerned about identity theft. Defense contractors have long been aware of the problems of a loose hard drive and demand complete destruction of not only old hard drives, but CD ROMs, DVDs or even floppy drives. Be aware! Or take the chance of being burnt but some unscrupulous hacker.
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