Discarding old computer? Smash it
　　A computer screen displaying an error message is seen at an internet cafe in Cairo December 20, 2008.
　　If you’re planning on getting rid of an old computer, make sure you remove the hard drive first and smash it up with a hammer, a British consumer group advised yesterday.
　　Which? Computing magazine said the only way to make sure fraudsters could not steal personal details from an old computer’s hard drive was to utterly destroy it, as simply deleting files or wiping the drive was not sufficient.
　　The magazine said it had bought eight second-hand drives from Internet auction site eBay and recovered 22,000 "deleted" files, including some information that could be confidential.
　　Criminals, who it said trawled council waste sites and Internet sites like eBay, would be able to use specialist software to retrieve the information, which could then be used to commit identity theft.
　　"PCs contain more valuable personal information than ever as people increasingly shop online, use social networking sites and take digital photos," said Sarah Kidner, Editor of Which? Computing.
　　"Even if you delete your files, you’d be surprised how easy it is to recover your personal data. It sounds extreme, but the only way to be 100 percent safe is to smash your hard drive into smithereens."　
　　英國一個消費者組織昨日建議，如果你現在正打算處理一臺舊電腦，一定要先卸下硬盤，然后用錘子把它給砸了。
　　英國Which-Computing雜志介紹稱，防止不法分子從廢棄電腦硬盤竊取私人信息的唯一辦法就是徹底銷毀硬盤，僅刪除文件或清除硬盤是不夠的。
　　該雜志稱，他們從eBay購物網上買了八個二手驅動，恢復了22000個被“刪除”文件，其中還包括一些機密信息。
　　那些盯著廢品站和eBay等購物網的不法分子們會使用專業軟件恢復廢棄電腦中的被刪信息，然后再據此實施“身份盜竊”。
　　Which-Computing雜志主編莎拉-基德納說：“隨著網上購物、在線社交和數碼拍照的流行，如今個人電腦中保存的私人信息越來越多。”
　　“即使你刪除了文件，你肯定不會想到恢復這些信息如此容易。這聽起來有點可怕，但要保證百分之百的安全，唯一的辦法就是徹底銷毀硬盤。”