17 March 2008
by Simon Quicke
It is now more than a year since legislation was introduced to curb the dumping of electrical waste, but widespread confusion continues to pose a security threat.
Despite the high-profile implementation of the WEEE Directive in January last year, business users are still disposing of PCs without removing sensitive information from their hard drives.
The warning from Kroll Ontrack, whose research has highlighted the problem, coincided with a call from Fujitsu Siemens Computers for proper disposal facilities for computer technology.
Henrik Andersen, worldwide product line manager of erasure at Kroll Ontrack, said that according to its findings, 60 per cent of people did not take precautions to remove data from waste computers.
"The cheapest part is erasing the data, but one of the biggest issues is awareness," he added.
Andersen believed there was a common misconception that putting files into the waste basket and pressing the delete key was sufficient to erase data.
"When you press delete and format the drive, the data is still there," he warned.
Andersen said security resellers had a part to play in increasing customer awareness of the issue.
According to Fujitsu Siemens, its research found that British people have failed to reuse or recycle 12.5 million unwanted PCs or laptops.
The hardware specialist called on councils to establish specialist facilities to handle technology waste so that equipment could be reused —something that would be of concern to those with unencrypted sensitive data still on their hard drives.
Reacting to the calls for a more sensible approach to the disposal and reuse of ageing IT equipment, Louise Richards, CEO of Computer Aid, said in a statement that more needed to be done to ensure computers that could be reused were ready to do so.
"Given that electrical and electronic waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in the UK, we are urging producers and local authorities to work with us to find a practical solution to increase
the reuse of PCs taken to the local tip and are already talking to a number of local authorities about how we can support their reuse efforts," she said.
