When I was in elementary school, my father and brother helped me build my first computer; I had scavenged the parts from the obsolete equipment my school was throwing out.

I had only the vaguest idea of what we were doing, but I distinctly remember firing up a word processor and finding several letters written by former teachers of mine still on the hard-drive. Unfortunately, this kind of leak is not unique.

Just yesterday, an acquaintance told me how he used to dumpster dive at a computer disposal plant and found several hard-drives from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Unencrypted.

If one wanted to earn a profitable living as a “market researcher”, identity thief, or foreign intelligence agent, buying liquidated computer equipment or working for a photocopier leaser would be a good place to start. Recovering even so-called deleted data is relatively easy with off-the-shelf software and a little know-how.

This article attempts to first explain how data storage works, dispel some of the myths around data destruction, and then tell you how to actually blow that data into oblivion.

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