Security of Data on E-waste equipment to Africa: The Case of Ghana

As computers become old and are discarded, it is imperative that they are effectively cleansed of all personal data. As the study showed, by using a simple data recovery software, remnant data can be retrieved from some disposed computer hard drives even after they have been formatted. If hard drives are not properly cleansed of data before they are discarded, individuals and organizations run the risk of having their information recovered and exploited by people with criminal intent. The study examined discarded computer hard drives obtained from some electronic waste dumpsites and other second hand computer dealers in Ghana, in an attempt to recover remnant information from them using a data recovery software. Out of 50 hard drives examined, 39 of them representing 78% contained identifiable individual information present in them. The results from this study indicated that most individuals and organizations are oblivious of data that still remains on computer hard drive even after files have been deleted and thus, it is necessary to highlight best approaches to asset disposal such as proper hard disk erasure techniques.