With all of the identity theft going on in the world right now, it is important to take steps to protect all personal information at any cost. Therefore, if your computer has personal information on it and the computer needs to be serviced for some reason, something you might consider having done is file shredding. This will keep anyone who has access to your computer for any length of time from gaining access to your personal information.
Lately, the new credit cards that use a swipe less process are actually very dangerous. Similar to accessing personal information from computers, identity thieves are now able to access the frequencies on which these swipes credit cards use and steal personal information that way. You might think this is being paranoid, but being a little paranoid sometimes really pays!
File wiping is a form of security for your personal information that works similar to taping over a VHS tape. Let's say your computer is running a little slower than you would like and you know there are files on your computer that you will never use again, but you also don't want anyone else to have access to that information. It used to be that and users thought that simply hitting the delete button or sending the file to the Recycle Bin would be enough.
When you tell the computer to delete a file, in fact, the file is not deleted at all. The only thing that happens is that the file's name is erased from the available list and is also marked by the computer as space available. As long as nothing new is recorded there, the file is still retrievable. This is how data restores can happen. Others found out that magnetic pulls on a floppy disk would erase the disk. Simple system commands are no longer considered a secure method of file deletion. As computers and their capabilities are enhanced, so are the abilities of hackers and the more complex the deleting process has become.
So, you want to get rid of some files. The process of file wiping is similar to that of taking your VHS tape that has a recording on it you no longer want, maybe it's an old movie or some instructional video that you taped from an infomercial. If you want to record another movie, you would just simply record over the old data (movie). If you want to wipe a file clean, it is the same as finding a television station that only transmits static and recording all the static over top of the old data. This prevents anyone (including yourself, remember) from accessing the data that you've taped over. The only thing that will be accessible will be the recorded static.
There are hundreds of software programs that allow you to file wipe and shred your files. It is important to be knowledgeable in the process - otherwise you will run the risk of erasing something that you really didn't want to delete.
Nothing is really foolproof as stated earlier. With the advancements in technology, it's hard to tell what the next step for a professional hacker will be, but for now, this is the best that cyber junkies have to offer
