Forensic Firm Finds Sensitive Data on eBay Hard Drives

by AKSHIT RANA    February 12, 2009

During a study by Kessler International, the computer forensics firm found that 40 percent of hard drives that it purchased in bulk on eBay contained personal, private and sensitive information. The breakdown of data that was discovered is as follows, according to Computerworld:

• Personal and confidential documents, 36 percent
• E-mails, 21 percent
• Photos, 13 percent
• Corporate documents, 11 percent
• Web browsing histories, 11 percent
• DNS server information, 4 percent
• Miscellaneous data, 4 percent

Michael Kessler, CEO of Kessler International, suspects that the hard drives came from computers sold to third-party resellers that disassembled them and sold off the parts. While his engineers used special forensics software to get at some of the data, some drives contained sensitive data in the clear.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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