"New" Hard Drive Contained Democratic Party Data

Somehow I think there's going to be negative feedback for this eBay seller - as well as negative feedback for the Arkansas Democratic Party employee who let this drive go without wiping it.

In June a California resident bought a "new" hard drive on eBay. Turns out it was hardly new. “I was a bit upset,” said the buyer, Bill Ries-Knight, an IT technician. “But it is not the first time I have experienced this, nor, do I expect, will be the last.”

It's not the first time he's bought a "new" hard drive that was really used? Considering he paid $69 for the drive, which is actually a little overpriced for a 120GB hard drive, I don't even know why he was buying from eBay. You can find cheaper prices at reputable retailers.

Anyway, it turns out the hard drive contained data created by high-level Democratic party officials while campaigning for Mike Beebe, who successfully won the Arkansas governorship last November. The computer the drive belonged to died, and David Qualls, an IT volunteer, was given the drive to keep after he worked on the PC.

This year, while Qualls was away in the National Guard, his wife sold the drive on eBay, believing it was new. I'm not sure how you mistake a used hard drive for new; even an OEM hard drive generally comes sealed.

At any rate, it just goes to show - encrypt the data. Or at least use something like SDelete, which I wrote about late last year, to really wipe your hard drive before giving it to someone. Oh, and do some pricing research before buying on eBay. As I said, $69 was too high anyway; he could have purchased a new hard drive from a regular Internet retailer for that price, or less.