Post #1821318

@linuxandyarn Unfortunately the differences here are scale and fraudulently selling used equipment as new. in 1992 a computer broker named Paul White died in a car accident. He had bought some used computer equipment from Citibank, included in the job lot were 86 floppy disks with data on them. A court ordered the return of the disks to Citibank who, for "unknown" reasons paid White NZ$15,000. Various rumours circulated, including claims that the disks contained details of illegal financial dealings by senior government MPs and he was killed to prevent disclosure. I think he was just a chancer who went on a drinking spree then tried to drive home, but maybe ... I remember this as in the 1990s I was working in computer security for a large company and when not trying to convince senior managers to not write their passwords on Post-its stuck to the underside of their keyboards I used this as an example on the need for secure disposal of magnetic media. Fast forward to 2013 and a University of Otago PhD graduand named Dax Roberts bought 100 used hard drives. 24 of these contained "contained 'concerning' private information." I'm sure there are many many more cases, but I have been out of computer security for 28 years so don't pay as much attention as I used to. https://www.afr.com/politics/nz-agog-over-computer-brokers-crash-death-19920911-k54ch