The root of many of the crimes perpetrated through the use of a computer stem from the fact that the highly sensitive information present on many personal and business computers isn't disposed of properly. You may not realize it, because it may not really seem like a big deal at the time, but you have tons of highly sensitive information stored on your personal hard drive - and if you operate a business you may have many other people's (your customers) highly sensitive information on there as well.

You could have: full names, social security numbers, complete addresses, accounts numbers (including bank and credit card). If you are getting rid of an old hard drive, even though you think you may have gone through every step to properly ensure that this sensitive information has been erased, it could still be present for anyone with even basic knowledge of computers to bring back and have full view of. Even if you have a good deal of computer knowledge and you make every effort to wipe a hard drive clean, there is no guarantee that an experienced computer programmer or hacker couldn't easily resurrect the sensitive information and do whatever they wanted with it.

Whether it's a business or personal computer, if the sensitive information that is present on the hard drive gets into the wrong hands it could be incredibly damaging to the computer owner. PC's that are "breached" once disposed of can very easily lead to a nasty case of identity theft that is very hard to track - the offender may literally have access to every single bit of personal identity they need to effectively steal the former PC owners identity. For those of you who've never been a victim of identity theft, rest assured it's not a very pleasant experience and can affect your credit for a very long time as the investigation is held and the details sorted out.

For business computers the scenario can be equally as bad, a business customer's private information can be made public. This can be damaging to the business' customers by having their sensitive information go out to the public and it can cause a wide rift created by distrust towards the company who let the information get out. One situation like this that isn't swiftly and efficiently handled can spell almost instant doom for a business.

It you don't want the potential disaster of highly sensitive information getting into the wrong hands, then it's imperative that the information be completely wiped away from the hard drive. The only one way to one guarantee that the information is completely destroyed is to use a hard disk crusher.

For a home PC, there are services available that you can enlist that will use the hard disk crusher on your system to remove all of the sensitive data before you dispose of the hard drive, or you can rent one from a service and perform the job yourself. For businesses who will be getting entirely new office equipment and have a multitude of machines that need to be "crushed", there are companies that lease or sell hard drive crushers that you will then have access to forever, or as long as you may need it.

If things continue to go the way they are going, it may not be long before crimes stemming from information found on computer hard drives comprise the bulk of the crimes committed in the US. Don't let yourself fall prey to this type of situation, before you dispose of any hard drive - use a hard disk crusher to clean all of the sensitive information off of it.