Registering/Accounts with online vendors

[zscoundrel]

It all depends on how important the data is.  While I keep some personal 
finance info on my systems, none of it would warrant someone trying to 
use exotic recovery methods to retrieve the data.  There just isn't 
enough value in the info to warrant that type of thing.  Most of the 
info that could be gleaned from my hard drive could also be found in a 
comprehensive credit check.  (Well, all except for my impressive number 
of consecutive wins in Freecell!)

Many in the Government services seem to have a overly high opinion of 
the information on their systems.  It is usually much easier to retrieve 
the information using social engineering methods than it is to 
disassemble the drive and chemically treat the media so you can pull the 
data back in using a scanning electron microscope.

Dustin Decker wrote:

> On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Duane Attaway wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Mon, 22 Jul 2002 KRFinch at dstsystems.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>>sand once you get them under an electron microscope.  It's never a matter
>>>of whether we can get data off of the drive or not, its just a matter of
>>>whether or not its worth spending the money."
>>>
>>Fascinating story.  I guess some kinds of data erasing might be not worth 
>>the cost of an oxyacetyline torch.  Or recovering the metals by 
>>smelting...
>>
> 
> IIRC, folks with secure environments such as the DOE have "black hole" 
> real estate... these are places into which floppies, hard drives, etc. 
> go in, but never come straight out without being pushed through a 
> shredder that can destroy the platters entirely...
> 
> It all depends on how serious you are :)
> Dustin
> 
>