Reporters Find US Gov't Data In Ghana Market 154
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by
samzenpus
from the full-recycle-bin dept.
from the full-recycle-bin dept.
narramissic writes "'Hundreds and hundreds of documents about government contracts,' were found on a hard drive purchased at a market in Ghana for the bargain basement price of $40, said Peter Klein, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia, who led an investigation into the global electronic waste business for the PBS show Frontline. The hard drive had belonged to US government contractor Northrop Grumman and in a made-for-TV ironic twist, 'some of the documents talked about how to recruit airport screeners and several of them even covered data security practices,' Klein said. 'Here were these contracts being awarded based on their ability to keep the data safe.'"
What a news scoop....*yawn* (Score:3, Funny)
Yet another example of some bonehead "disposing" of old equipment without wiping the data first. Time to start cranking out those Pulitzer prizes. ;)
They found... (Score:4, Funny)
some of the documents talked about how to recruit airport screeners
It contained a link to monster.com?
Re:Umm.. that's not how it works (Score:4, Funny)
I think it's asking a bit much of the US taxpayer that he should be required to go to a local market in Ghana to buy the info. It should be provided by the government.
Besides, this is a company providing the info. I'm not really much into socializing everything, but dammit, there are some things that belong into government hands!
Re:When I dispose of an obsolete drive (Score:4, Funny)
Re:When I dispose of an obsolete drive (Score:5, Funny)
The rest of the drive I fill up with the combine works of David Hasselhof. Cruel, but effective.
Re:They found... (Score:4, Funny)
Airport screeners know how to use monster.com?!
The NSA should just buy all the drives on eBay! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Contracts (Score:3, Funny)
It will take a lot of effort to recover the data from the resulting molten puddles of metal
If you want to wipe very many hard drives at a go, there's always stuff like thermite, furnaces and bessemer converters.