Another UK data blunder

I'm truly amazed at the latest UK data blunder where a second hand server was sold on eBay containing over a million banking records.

What is it with the UK and computer records? The Guardian has a list of NINE major blunders in the last twelve month.

Now it is possible that UK corporations are a bit more open about the problem than their overseas counterparts, but I somehow doubt it.

The big lesson from this particular debacle is that you have to wipe your computers before selling them on eBay or giving them away to your friends.

One big trap is returning computers to leasing companies as Paul McCartney found a few years back. You need to totally wipe any important data before returning the computer to the bank or finance company.

A free program I like for doing this is the Heidi Eraser program. It's a relatively easy to use tool that wipes free space on the drive or the entire drive should you so desire.

We have instructions on using it on our IT Queries website.

If this is too hard, then we have our own service where a tech can do this for. Most other IT services companies can do it too.