ABSTRACT
Moore's Law dictates the computer technology doubles in power every 18 months. That means that computing equipment becomes obsolete fairly rapidly. The simplest and most certain way to make sure no one can access data on an unwanted computer is to destroy the hard disks. Many companies offer hard-disk shredding services, or you could just take a hammer to it. In 2012 the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust was fined £325,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) following a serious breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA). If files need to be destroyed for reasons of regulatory compliance then it will be sensible to use a commercial product that guarantees data destruction: the free programs, although fine for most purposes. Data destruction programs are available free and overwriting the data in the way is fine for most purposes, although perhaps not if you are a national government with particularly sensitive secrets.
