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[tickmike]

I have had another computer and LCD monitor given me for my Linux testing.
Booting it up and looking at the hard drive and the amount of Ram, I noticed the the person had not taken all there data off it even although they may have thought they had !.
It has XP on it  (which will soon be wiped  ) .
On opening up Internet Explorer it took me strait to there bank account  , then opening up the email browser took me strait into there emails account  .
I did the decent thing and shut the browsers down ASAP.

What shall I do ?. anything ?.
I was thinking on the lines of saying that I had found a virus on there hard drive and think they should change there passwords for all there accounts there safety.

I'm Not going to tell them what I have seen ( and now forgot) .

A good lesson if you are giving away any computer wipe the hard drive or do a fresh install of the operating system.


A downside after repairing the switch on the front of the monitor and then testing it it was quite noticeable that it was scrap as the screen was cracked (I did notice an small scratch on the screen when they gave it ti me but did not think it was much).

[UncleUB]

Tbh I think you should tell them and make them aware how serious this is.Better to try and educate them than say nothing.After all its not your fault as to what you have seen.

[roseway]

Yes, I think I agree with that. The lack of awareness of such basic security is likely to get them into trouble sooner or later.

[burakkucat]

I'll add my agreement to both Eric's and Uncle's suggestions. 

[camallison]

Inform them - I am sure they will thank you for the info.

Colin

[tickmike]

Ok, I have sent them an email..just waiting for the flack now.

I have also told them how to set up a 'User' account and told them it's not secure to use an Administrator account as they had it set.

[tickmike]

I had a nice email back thanking me and said it was a Professional person who cleaned there computer when they bought the new one  . 

[roseway]

>>> a Professional person who cleaned there computer

Very professional!

[broadstairs]

There is only one way to be sure to 100% clean a computer and that is a sldge hammer and metal spike and drive it through the hard drive    However I doubt the FBI or GCHQ would get at any PC normally 

Stuart

[burakkucat]

I prefer to dismantle the disk-drive and drop the platter(s) into a furnace. 

[kitz]

I prefer to dismantle the disk-drive and drop the platter(s) into a furnace. 

heh, For some reason Im just reminded of the incidents on the net sometime during the early 2000 I think it was, when it became a 'laugh' to advise users to make a batch file with  the cmd del system32 

There was one reported incident where someone did and then was promptly advised to use a magnet over the HDD to fix.   I think it was a joke.. as Im sure no one really went through with it.
It was however one of those posts though where you are sat half cringing, half in awe and thinking "noooooooooo"  as you read through it.. and kinda funny in a warped way.

[sevenlayermuddle]

There is only one way to be sure to 100% clean a computer and that is a sldge hammer and metal spike and drive it through the hard drive    However I doubt the FBI or GCHQ would get at any PC normally 

Stuart

Reminds me of a decade or two ago, I was working on MOD secure software whereby every copy of the data, on every disk, had to be accounted for.

At one point, a disk drive crashed.   We were allowed to replace it and to re-instate it from an authorised backup, but the boffins asked to borrow the old drive to make certain it was properly erased.  When they returned it we received just a bag of bits, including  some some circular objects that had once beens disk platters, but every ounce of lining had been filed away from them.  I suspect that was at least as effective as the metal spike solution 

[tickmike]

Running 'Dban' does a good job. 
http://www.dban.org/