There has been an explosion in technology development in the last 10 years. The resulting continuous upgrade cycle has created a thriving second-hand market. Large corporations routinely unload obsolete hardware onto resellers who farm the hardware out to the second-hand market.
Rather like the second-hand car market, things do not always run smoothly. Almost without exception, internal IT departments will ensure basic data deletion – deleting files to the point where the operating system cannot ‘see’ or locate any data. But most end-user corporations do not have sufficient internal processes in place to make sure that all data is irrevocably wiped from obsolete hardware. Worse still, many intermediary companies are also negligent of their obligation to securely delete stored data.
