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Gravitycollapse

(8,155 posts)
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 03:53 AM Mar 2014

3 years ago, while in West Africa, I unknowingly walked over thousands of secret US documents...

I remember walking through Ghana's "Sodom and Gomorrah" slum while living in Legon and being informed afterwards that I was one lucky Obruni to have made it out unscathed. It was both an immediate and remote experience traveling through an actual slum. Immediate in it's presence, I'd never seen anything like that before. Remote in that it was so real, there was such an overload of everything, that it felt like I wasn't even there. I always wondered why there was so much reclaimed computer parts for sale at the Tro-Tro stations in and around Accra. But here is what I never knew until now...

Sodom and Gomorrah is the nickname for a slum in Accra called Agbogbloshie and it is the largest e-waste dump on the planet.







http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2014/feb/27/agbogbloshie-worlds-largest-e-waste-dump-in-pictures




The Basel Convention was signed in 1989 and took effect in 1992 and bans the transfer of mass e-waste from industrial nations to developing nations. The problem is one of the largest producers of e-waste on Earth, The United States, has yet to ratify it. This means that the US can ship thousands of tons of e-waste each year to whatever part of the world they find suitable as a dump. Much of this is dumped in the Accra suburb of Agbogbloshie.


I never knew I was walking through an American creation. But, now that I do know, I feel a little sick.


As it also turns out, the people who are responsible for the security of rather sensitive documents for the US government don't know know how to swipe hard drives very well...

http://boingboing.net/2009/06/25/illegal-e-waste-dump.html

A team of journalists investigating the global electronic waste business has unearthed a security problem too. In a Ghana market, they bought a computer hard drive containing sensitive documents belonging to U.S. government contractor Northrop Grumman.

The drive had belonged to a Fairfax, Virginia, employee who still works for the company and contained "hundreds and hundreds of documents about government contracts," said Peter Klein, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia, who led the investigation for the Public Broadcasting Service show Frontline. He would not disclose details of the documents, but he said that they were marked "competitive sensitive" and covered company contracts with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Transportation Security Agency.

The data was unencrypted, Klein said in an interview. The cost? US$40..."It was a wonderful, ironic twist," Klein said. "Here were these contracts being awarded based on their ability to keep the data safe."

Off-camera, sources in Ghana told the reporters that data thieves routinely scour these hard drives for sensitive information, Klein said.



So we award contracts to companies on the basis that they are good at keeping documents secure. Yet I myself, Gravitycollapse, literally walked through a field of secret documents dumped haphazardly in a slightly dried up lagoon slum of Accra without even knowing it.


Our US security state appears to be hemorrhaging "secure" information all over the globe. Which kind of brings into new light the absurdity of their attempt to surveil the American people because they clearly cannot be trusted with any sensitive information at all. And, in the end, what should we learn from this?

Instead of investing untold billions on civilian spying infrastructure, our government should take that money and invest in better governmental and contractor oversight.

Sheesh.
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3 years ago, while in West Africa, I unknowingly walked over thousands of secret US documents... (Original Post) Gravitycollapse Mar 2014 OP
Yet, Snowden Is Somehow A Traitor - Go Figure cantbeserious Mar 2014 #1
Anyone involved in contracting out this sort of thing should be the ones cui bono Mar 2014 #2
Why would the US not ratify the Basel Convention? n/t cui bono Mar 2014 #3
I believe the photo, indeed, the entire article is the reason: TO DUMP E-WASTE WHEREVER WE WANT. WinkyDink Mar 2014 #10
Yeah, and look at the consequences. That's why I asked. cui bono Mar 2014 #15
So we can dump our shit in other countries without consequence. Gravitycollapse Mar 2014 #16
Mr Hekate and I routinely participate in electronic waste recycle days. Is this where it goes?! Hekate Mar 2014 #4
I do too! Texasgal Mar 2014 #18
While we are earnestly participating in these recycle drives, we might want to ask:Where does it go? Hekate Mar 2014 #19
Yep. Future mines for the metals now being dumped as "not economic" to recover. bemildred Mar 2014 #5
how does one onethatcares Mar 2014 #6
I recommend beating them to pieces with a sledgehammer. bemildred Mar 2014 #7
If it's super duper sensitive information that you really JoeyT Mar 2014 #9
my first thought was to onethatcares Mar 2014 #11
I think they're mostly aluminum. JoeyT Mar 2014 #13
I suspect the govt has the know-how, but dumping is way cheaper. WinkyDink Mar 2014 #12
Smashing them to tiny bits is the most sound option. Gravitycollapse Mar 2014 #17
Recommend! KoKo Mar 2014 #8
You cannot privatize national security malaise Mar 2014 #14

cui bono

(19,926 posts)
2. Anyone involved in contracting out this sort of thing should be the ones
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:48 AM
Mar 2014

considered traitors.

This is fucking incredible, ridiculous, atrocious, unbelievable.... you get the idea. Ugh.

I'm MUCH more careful with my ewaste. And mine doesn't include any classified information.

 

WinkyDink

(51,311 posts)
10. I believe the photo, indeed, the entire article is the reason: TO DUMP E-WASTE WHEREVER WE WANT.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 12:35 PM
Mar 2014

cui bono

(19,926 posts)
15. Yeah, and look at the consequences. That's why I asked.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 02:48 PM
Mar 2014

Crazy.

So the govt won't ratify it so private contractors can easily spill our classified docs all over the world. So why are we so concerned over Snowden? Are the Snowden critics going to jump all over this?

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
4. Mr Hekate and I routinely participate in electronic waste recycle days. Is this where it goes?!
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 04:51 AM
Mar 2014

The road to Hell is paved with discarded hard drives, apparently.

At least hubby goes to great lengths to wipe out all information from our personal computers. A fellow professional takes it further and drills holes in his discards.

Honest to Gods I don't know what goes through the minds of so-called government security professionals.

Texasgal

(17,029 posts)
18. I do too!
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:42 PM
Mar 2014

As a matter of fact we have one coming up! I thought I was doing a good thing... Damn.

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
19. While we are earnestly participating in these recycle drives, we might want to ask:Where does it go?
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 09:13 PM
Mar 2014

Appropriate smilie here-->

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
5. Yep. Future mines for the metals now being dumped as "not economic" to recover.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 06:43 AM
Mar 2014

Not to mentions all the poisons, carcinogens, and plastics.

And an excellent example of why it's called "security theater".

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
7. I recommend beating them to pieces with a sledgehammer.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:07 AM
Mar 2014

There are various software products that claim to do the job, but they are not reliable (IMHO) against serious investigators with means. And make sure you get the disk inside and destroy it too.

JoeyT

(6,785 posts)
9. If it's super duper sensitive information that you really
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 12:25 PM
Mar 2014

want to annihilate with no chance of retrieving even the slightest fragment of data, there are a bunch of ways.

For the low tech cheap option, you can open the drive, pull the platters out, stick them in a cheap disposable microwave outside your house, and fry them until the microwave quits working. Then smash the pieces.

The high tech option is a device called a "Degausser", that does basically the same thing, but doesn't become a flaming wreckage on your lawn after the first use.

Edited to add: That's simplified quite a bit, but gives you a general idea how it works.

onethatcares

(16,130 posts)
11. my first thought was to
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 12:35 PM
Mar 2014

take the drive out, get the platters out of it and run a bench grinder over the surfaces.

I was under the impression that the platters held a bit (albeit small) amount of platinum for recycling or has that

gone the way of clean oceans?

JoeyT

(6,785 posts)
13. I think they're mostly aluminum.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 01:09 PM
Mar 2014

With some copper in the motor and neodymium magnets. I generally take old ones apart for the magnets, which are strong enough to pinch a blister on your finger if you get it between them.

There's a coating, but I think it takes an astronomical amount of them to make it efficient.

Edited to add: I actually use a cutting torch or a 6010 welding rod turned up to high heat to blast the platters into slag. I'm told just cutting them up isn't enough, but I'm not sure how much of that is truth and how much is bluster.

Gravitycollapse

(8,155 posts)
17. Smashing them to tiny bits is the most sound option.
Sun Mar 16, 2014, 07:20 PM
Mar 2014

But there are ways of electronically cleaning swiping a hard drive.

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