US military data on hard drive bought on eBay

THE launch procedures for a US military missile air defence system were found on a second-hand hard drive bought on eBay, researchers revealed yesterday.

The disk also contained security policies, blueprints of facilities and personal information on employees.

More than 300 hard disks were studied and researchers uncovered other sensitive information including bank account details, medical records, business plans, and financial company data.

The drives were bought from Britain, America, Germany, France and Australia through computer auctions, computer fairs and eBay.

The exercise was carried out by BT’s Security Research Centre in collaboration with the University of Glamorgan in Wales, Edith Cowan University in Australia and Longwood University in the US.

A BT spokesman said they found 34% of the hard disks contained personal data or commercial company data.