The Civil Guard warns about “trashing”: your deleted documents and photos can become your worst enemy

It is quite common that many of the bills we receive in our home, we end up throwing directly into the trash, or even that mobile phone or personal computer that stopped working years ago, we leave directly in the trash can.

If you have ever done this, you could have exposed your personal data to any common criminal or even a hacker.

The Civil Guard is warning of the rise of the technique known as “Trashing” or “dumpster diving”, where criminals obtain sensitive information from people by recovering material that they have previously discarded.

This is because certain documents and devices that we throw away contain sensitive information such as our full name, postal address or even a bank account number.

On the other hand, the National Cybersecurity Institute indicates that the theft of this data can lead to identity theft of the victim or even extortion.

Criminals take advantage of the trust of people who believe that by throwing things in the trash they are already thrown away, but that is not really the case.

The Civil Guard recommends properly destroy documents and devices containing personal data.

If it is, for example, an invoice or any paper item, you must cross out sensitive data with a permanent marker or use a paper shredder.

If it is an electronic device such as a mobile phone or computer that we have thrown away, we must delete absolutely all files that contain any type of private information, and sending them to the trash is not enough.

For this they recommend resort to secure mechanisms or applications that securely and permanently delete the information.

So think twice before throwing away your old personal computer or mobile phone, because it could become your worst enemy in the future.

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Tags: cybercriminals