Posted on 04/25/2018 4:10:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Travis Reinking, 29, took his laptop to a Nashville repair shop in March and asked the staff to swipe the hard drive.
Robert Hartline, the owner of Dang It Repair, told WSMV there was nothing “unusual about the transaction.”
About two weeks later, Reinking called the store. He identified himself and asked a technician about an issue with his device.
“Sorry, are you wanting to make a backup disk? Or …” a technician asked, according to a recording of the phone call.
Reinking interrupted him saying, “You know what I’m talking about.”
The technician tells Reinking that he doesn’t understand.
“No, uh, yeah, that’s what I’m saying, if I made a backup disk and kept that for later and had somebody analyze it they are not going to find anything on it that you guys put there, are they?” Reinking asked the technician.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
If I was a Tech Clerk and got a call like that one, I would presume the customer was involved in something illegal.
I would presume it was either theft or drug trafficking or child abuse of some kind and tell my Manager.
Of course, we are talking about customers of computer goods, including all kinds of people. Maybe this sort of call is not that unusual when a customer get’s frustrated about their laptop or phone. I can only imagine the calls The Geek Squad at Best Buy get every single day.
BASIC INTELLIGENCE TEST.
American Edition.
One question. (1.)
There are TWO (2) possible answers, “a” or “b.”
Please circle (a) or (b).
Question 1. (one.)
You wish to become a successful mass-murdering “shooter.” Where would you choose to conduct your shooting?
a) A Waffle House.
b) Anywhere else.
If somebody gives you an old computer, but asks you to wipe the hard drive first, you are likely to do it or have it done. It is a common program that all computer techs have, and many tech-savvy individuals.
Waffle house exists to show people that the poor decisions you made the night before are only the beginning.
This guy, Travis, took this to the extreme.
How hard is it to find out how to fdisk?
It’s very easy to use fdisk, but that does not mean the data is gone. Unless the files are overwritten the data can still be recovered.
I can’t say that I disagree with reasoning. Given the incentives by the FBI, I suspect a lot of people were given ‘new files’ on their computer by repair shops, and now have to register as sex offenders.
Bottom line - NEVER let a stranger touch, much less ‘repair’, your computer. Just use it as much as possible, back up your stuff, and when it does, crush the drive(s) and toss it.
You should not assume that such utilities can successfully wipe SSDs.
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