TAM highlights the dangers of data security

Technical Asset Management (TAM), the PC disposal and recycling company, has warned dealers to seriously consider issues of data security when getting rid of obsolete hardware.

The recycling company is calling for an industry-wide certification process for wiping data from used computers. The move comes after PC World allegedly found pornographic material on Gary Glitter's PC after it had been taken in for repair.

John Godfrey, commercial director at TAM, claimed that merely deleting or even reformatting hard disks was not enough as the files can remain on the disk. He highlighted the example of a disk from a merchant bank from which TAM was able to extract a spreadsheet for Toshiba UK's corporate borrowing for the next five years.

TAM uses software to overwrite every bit of the hard disk with the figures of random zeros and ones or it uses a nail gun to destroy the individual disks inside the case.

Dealers need to be aware of the risks of selling equipment with such damaging information on it, said Godfrey. He pointed out that it was unclear as to where the responsibility lies and who looks after the information.

The channel needs to address this issue or be liable for the consequences.

TAM deals with 55,000 PCs a year, each of which contain an estimated 150Mb of potentially sensitive information on average.

See Chris Long, page 22.