MIT grad students say companies are frequently selling or giving away old computer hard drives with sensitive information still on them. The data retrieved included detailed personal and corporate financial records, medical records, and personal e-mail. Companies such as Microsoft are guilty of misrepresenting their products’ “file delete” and “disk format” features, the study says. The problem stems from failures on the part of computer vendors and consumers alike, the report says. Operators need to adopt consistent policies to sanitize hard drives that are sold, destroyed or reused.”]
Source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/2113403/cold–hard-drive-facts.html