March 26
Over the course of the next few weeks, many of us will be consumed both in the evenings and on the weekends preparing our income tax returns using one of the popular tax prerparation software packages like TurboTax, TaxCut, TaxACT, Complete Tax, TaxSlayer, TaxEngine, or TaxBrain in the US or eTaxCanada, FutureTax 2008, GenuTax, H & R Block, myTaxExpress 2008, QuickTax, StudioTax 2008, TaxFreeway, Taxnic, TaxTron, or UFile in Canada.
If you are one of the fortunate taxpayers who will receive a refund and decide to put the proceeds of your refund towards the purchase of a new laptop or PC, remember to wipe the hard drive clean of any and all sensitive data before you dispose of your old computer.
The simple deletion of your tax-related data and financial records (or any data for that matter) on your laptop or computer does not erase them from your computer’s hard drive. It only makes it challenging to locate them. Your confidential tax and financial records on your computer could be recovered by individuals with less than honorable intentions perhaps even by your neighbor’s teenager whose major is Computer Science.
It’s advisable to use a utility like CBL Data Shredder to wipe a drive clean of all data before you sell the computer, donate it to a charity, or leave it by the curb for the trash collectors, treasure hunters or neighbors to take.
Reduce the chance of identity theft. Wipe your drive, but make sure you first keep a backup of your tax return and a printed copy.
Consult the IRS or CRA websites on statutes of limitations for keeping records.
Category: data loss prevention, helpful hints
Tags: back-up, complete tax, deleting files, deleting hard drive, erase data, etaxcanada, financial records, futuretax 2008, genutax, tax-related data, taxact, taxbrain, taxcut, taxengine, tax filing, tax refund, taxslayer, theft, turbotax, wiping drive
Mar 30, 01:19 AM
Hi,
Nice written by you about data recovery. You doing very nice job. Keep it up.