People all over the world throw away or recycle their phones, tablets, cameras and other devices, along with the memory cards they have inside. But what they don't think about is what information is inside these devices. A recent study in the United Kingdom found that more than two-thirds of used memory cards that users threw away or recycled contained files belonging to their owners, as they had not been wiped.
Over a four-month period, the researchers purchased used memory cards from a variety of sources, including eBay, local flea markets, and online classifieds. Of the 100 cards they purchased, 65 contained data from previous users.
Shockingly, in 36 of them, the files were accessible simply by plugging the card into a device, without any password. The remaining 65 drives appeared to be empty, but when it comes to storage media, appearances can be deceiving.
There are many free tools that can recover deleted files from a storage medium. In the specific memories with such tools, photos, videos, business documents and CVs were found. It is clear that this kind of information should not fall into the wrong hands. Phishing attacks can be carried out very easily, or even blackmail, if the data is personal. Also, through meta data, a criminal can know the exact location where a photo was taken such as the residence, the summer house and so on.
In summary, it is very important to wipe and not just delete any storage media that we plan to throw away, recycle or sell. A very useful application for Windows is Disk Wipe, which does exactly this. It is important to mention that in 25 of the 100 cards purchased, a wipe had been performed beforehand, so no files were recovered.
