“Digital” Storage Wars…a reality show that’s not on TV

Ever watch the show “Storage Wars” on A&E?  I have to admit, every time I see the title, I think it’s a show pitting Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Samsung, Toshiba against each other…  I tuned in recently and got hooked on these treasure hunters that bid on abandoned storage sheds hoping to find stuff of material value they could resell.  It’s pretty cool to see what these guys find, good and bad.

Then I thought…the more we move more to a digital lifestyle, what would digital storage wars look like?

Imagine auctions where decommissioned hard drives are rolled out in front of potential bidders. Like the show on A&E,  specifics about the drive are hidden from the bidding parties.  Bidders will have to take into consideration drive age, capacity, form factor, etc. to ascertain who may have owned the drive and thus what information may be on the drive.  We all know that thousands of drives are stolen, misplaced, decomissioned, etc. a year and almost all of them contain valuable information, whether they be music collections, photos, videos, or much worse, credit card numbers, social security numbers, financial information, etc.   Like the show, bidders could have access to a gold mine of information to use or resell at their disposal.

Of course, it’s ridiculous to think a show like this would actually exist, but it is safe to say that unlike the reputable bidders on Storage Wars the show, there are people out there that would pay to gain access to personal information. It happens everyday.

So what is the answer to never allowing a “Digital Storage Wars” show to air?

Technology like Secure Erase by Seagate for one.  On every Seagate self-encrypting drive there is a command functionality that allows the user to permanently and effectively erase everything on a decommissioned drive prior to scrapping it, selling it, or re-purposing it.

In any case, you should check out the show…good mindless entertainment.

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