One of the best ways to protect yourself against identity theft is to shred sensitive documents with a crosscut shredder before you dispose of them.
Such shredding is probably sufficient to protect you against a dumpster-diving identity thief. But, it won't necessarily avoid scrutiny if it's your own government wants to read them.
Researchers in Germany have developed software that can re-assemble shredded documents. The software will be used to reassemble 16,000 bags of documents shredded by the Stasi, the secret police in the former East Germany.
In the United States, law enforcement and intelligence agencies have long sought tools to allow them to reassemble shredded documents. "It's been an area of interest for a very long time," says William Daly, a former FBI investigator. "The government is always trying to keep ahead of the curve."
The lesson is clear. Don't assume that using a shredder is the "final word" in document destruction. If you really want to make sure that a document is unreadable, burn it, then stir the ashes.
That way, you'll avoid being "burned" by having supposedly unreadable shredded documents recovered and possibly used against you.
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Nestmann
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