Is Your Data Gone? Comparing Perceived Effectiveness of Thumb Drive Deletion Methods to Actual Effectiveness
Sarah Diesburg, C. Adam Feldhaus, Mojtaba Al Fardan, Jonathan, Schlicht, Nigel Ploof

TL;DR
This study compares users' perceived data deletion effectiveness with actual results on USB drives, revealing widespread misconceptions and persistent sensitive data, highlighting the need for better deletion practices and user education.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence that users' perceptions of deletion methods do not match actual effectiveness, with implications for improving data sanitization practices.
Findings
Over 60% of drives had recoverable sensitive data
No correlation between perceived and actual deletion effectiveness
Market drives show similar deletion issues as buyback drives
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that many users do not use effective data deletion techniques upon sale or surrender of storage devices. A logical assumption is that many users are still confused concerning proper sanitization techniques of devices upon surrender. This paper strives to measure this assumption through a buyback study with a survey component. We recorded participants' thoughts and beliefs concerning deletion, as well as general demographic information, in relation to actual deletion effectiveness on USB thumb drives. Thumb drives were chosen for this study due to their relative low cost, ease of use, and ubiquity. In addition, we also bought used thumb drives from eBay and Amazon Marketplace to use as a comparison to the wider world. We found that there is no statistically significant difference between buyback and market drives in terms of deletion methods nor presence of…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAdvanced Malware Detection Techniques · Digital and Cyber Forensics · User Authentication and Security Systems
