Behind the smart World

Artist Simon Krenn (Austria)

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Simon Christoph Krenn was born in Feldkirch (AT) in 1986. He studied Biology and 
Architecture at the University of Innsbruck and is currently enrolled in the 
Bachelor's degree programme 'Timebased and Interactive Media' at the University 
of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz. Working at the intersection of 
experimental sound, video and hybrid media, he explores the barriers between 
digital representation and natural phenomena in conceptual installations. His 
work focuses on the metabolic-entropic consumption of information that occurs in 
the process of disappearance and dissociation. He works with microorganisms, 
mechanical typewriters, electromagnetic actuators, human cell cultures and 16 mm 
film projectors.

www.simonchristophkrenn.com / contact@simonchristophkrenn.com

How to Stop Data Thieves From Stealing Information Off Your Old Gadgets

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Considering our collective thirst to upgrade to the latest shiny gadget, it’s not surprising that consumer electronics generate a nasty amount of waste—some 3.4 million tons of e-waste year. We are device-gobbling monsters who grow strong on the gleaming newness of our machines. But tossing out “old” devices creates an overlooked hazard.

You might think that cracked iPhone 3GS is literal trash, but the private details of your life can be another man’s treasure. If smartphones and computers aren’t properly recycled, the information stashed in our trashed electronics can be enormously valuable for dumpster-diving data thieves in the habit of hawking personal info.

Sure enough, many electronics recycling programs aren’t properly protecting digital detritus, dumping e-waste in startlingly irresponsible ways. Our discarded devices are often exported and siphoned into literal dumps, flooding Ghanian and Chinese landfills with unwiped hard drives. This provides desperate thieves with centralized collection areas to rifle through.

And they have, as Idaho Power Company found out the bad way in 2006, when sensitive corporate data wound up on eBay after an e-waste job gone wrong. The company participated in a hard drive recycling program but failed to scrub the drives before giving them to the salvage vendor. The salvage vendor also neglected to wipe the drives, resulting in hundreds of drives popping up on eBay still chock-full of confidential employee information and proprietary memos.

http://gizmodo.com/how-to-stop-data-thieves-from-stealing-information-off-1679198939

Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets

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At a warehouse in New Jersey, 6,000 used copy machines sit ready to be sold. CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports almost every one of them holds a secret.

Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive – like the one on your personal computer – storing an image of every document copied, scanned, or emailed by the machine.

In the process, it’s turned an office staple into a digital time-bomb packed with highly-personal or sensitive data.

If you’re in the identity theft business it seems this would be a pot of gold.

“The type of information we see on these machines with the social security numbers, birth certificates, bank records, income tax forms,” John Juntunen said, “that information would be very valuable.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/digital-photocopiers-loaded-with-secrets/