Erasing Vs Deleting: Are Your ‘Deleted’ Files Truly Gone?

Our data recovery study found that 48 percent of second-hand hard drives contained data leftover from the previous user. What’s worse, 75 percent of those drives already had a deletion attempt made on them. So if the user had already attempted to delete the file, why was the data able to be recovered? Read on to learn the difference between erasing vs deleting. The majority of people don’t realize that […]

Russ Ernst As Executive Vice President, Products and Technology, Russ Ernst is responsible for defining, driving and executing the product strategy across both the data erasure and mobile diagnostics product suites. Most recently, Russ was Director of Product Management for Lumension, where he was instrumental in expanding the platforms and applications supported for vulnerability remediation content. He often speaks on our webinars about data management and data erasure.

Our data recovery study found that 48 percent of second-hand hard drives contained data leftover from the previous user. What’s worse, 75 percent of those drives already had a deletion attempt made on them. So if the user had already attempted to delete the file, why was the data able to be recovered? Read on to learn the difference between erasing vs deleting.

The majority of people don’t realize that when they delete a file, drag it to the ‘Recycle Bin,’ or even reformat a drive, the information is still there. You see, all of these methods simply remove the pointers to the data without actually removing the data itself.

But what happens to data when businesses are unknowingly using inadequate deletion methods to reduce surplus data or recycle/dispose of old IT assets? They’re not only left with a false sense of security, but massive amounts of information like emails, confidential documents and other sensitive information risks being exposed and falling into the wrong hands.

In 2015, cyber attacks exposed nearly 160 million data records, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. And with tougher data protection rules, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation being introduced, businesses can’t afford to be lax with information management. Do you have any idea of how many “deleted” files you have left behind on your computer? Try running a recovery program on your PC and prepare to be shocked by the results.

So how can businesses make it impossible for “deleted” files to be recovered? The answer is simple: secure data erasure. Software-based data erasure of files on active PCs, servers and even virtual machines. As easy and fast as it is to delete files, software-based data erasure is the most secure and approved way of getting rid of your data, for good. What this means is it’s impossible to recover files and data cannot be leaked.

To see how easily your business can erase files and get rid of data for good start your free trial of Blancco File.