It is easy to restore personal data on almost half of used HDDs that sold on Ebay

42% of used hard drives that are sold on the eBay platform, contain confidential information and personal data.

“What precautions are online marketplace sellers taking with personal data when they post used devices for sale? How likely is it for new owners to find residual data on pre-owned technology?”, — questioned researchers.

Researcher from Blancco Technology Group, working with Ontrack data recovery specialists, analyzed 159 hard drives, ordered from eBay by US, UK, Germany and Finland customers.

At least three of every 20 data storages contained personal data. Specialists consider that this situation explained by unawareness about methods of information removal from electronic media.

“Sale of old and outdated hardware on the online market is tempting, however, in reality it increases risk of confidential information and credentials leakage” – explain researchers from Blancco Technology Group.

Key findings that are reflected in the analysts report, were:

• Some devices contained scans of passports, birth certificates and financial reports;
• Were also discovered student’s works and linked to them email addresses;
• 5Gb of archives that contained corporate correspondence, belonged to touristic company;
• Among the files of musical shop were found 32 000 photos;
• Experts also saw pictures and documents that contained names one of schools’ students.

Source: https://www.blancco.com