Do you know where your files go when you delete them? Yes, there’s a good chance you know they end up in the recycling bin. However, the truth is, a full file deletion process is a bit more elaborate, and important to know for reasons covered later on in this blog.
So, you’ve had enough of a Word document you downloaded in 2022 from a work email, that has been sitting in your Downloads folder for years. As mentioned, it’ll first be sent straight to the Recycling Bin upon pressing ‘delete’. Although at this stage, the Word doc is still fully accessible on the device.
It’s at this point, understandably, that the user will assume deleting the Word doc from their Recycling Bin would fully erase it, right? WRONG.
What actually happens is that the directory of that Word doc, and the file address to reach it, are deleted. In English, the way of accessing the file directly is erased, but the binary data is still on your device.
Due to the differences in how certain storage hardware operates, it’s worthwhile to mention that recovering said Word doc is possible, but with varying difficulty. In brief, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) will only fully delete/overwrite data until it is needed, to accommodate new files. An SSD (Solid State Drive) does the same process, but pre-emptively, making it much harder to recover data.
A very fair question. Let’s rewind to my earlier example of a Word doc and make a few changes. Let’s say that this document was actually an Excel spreadsheet financial report, given to you by your finance department in the workplace. That’s already a lot more important-sounding now. On one hand, knowing what’s been covered in this blog might be very useful if you somehow managed to accidentally delete that document and did it AGAIN in your recycling bin. However, that isn’t quite why we think knowing how file deletion works is important.
Let’s start with our first case study: In 2013, the NHS were fined £200,000 by the ICO for improper file deletion/wipe of their old computers. Unfortunately for the NHS, they trusted that responsibility to an IT contractor. Instead of wiping the devices and then destroying them, the contractor instead sold them on eBay! The lucky buyer recovered and accessed the computers’ deleted information, containing confidential medical records, patients’ personal information, and staff financial data.
So, moral of the story, there is clearly a need to look into your IT contractor… but also, be aware of incorrectly wiping the data from old devices!
If you wanted something a little more recent, there was a research report from Kaspersky in 2021 that showed some alarming results about business devices. Kaspersky found that out of all the devices they examined, “16% contained immediately accessible data, while 74% had data recoverable through file carving techniques. Only 11% of devices were completely data-free” (Source: Modern Networks)
Understanding file deletion is more important to employees, business owners, and even IT departments than most give it credit for. Case studies like the NHS one show the financial risk of malicious attackers exploiting improper device wiping, as well as the ensuing data leak. On the other hand, the Kaspersky report highlights that this is not an issue that has become irrelevant since 2013.
For all business owners and businesses, we recommend that, like us, you ensure that old devices are fully wiped and recycled by a trusted third party. If your IT is managed by an outsourced provider, such as ourselves, make sure they also adhere to this… it might save a massive headache of legal and financial repercussions one day~
If this blog has been interesting or useful, maybe you’ll be interested in our recent blog on the True Cost of a Data Breach? Stay safe!
