The mess with the Veterans Administration is scary but there is an even larger problem looming on the horizon. It's just a matter of time.

-FACT

There're 575 mln PCs in use today, 1.3 bln by 2010

By 2010, mature markets in the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific will have added 150 mln new PCs, while emerging markets will have added 566 mln new computers. Overall, there will be 1.3 billion PCs, up from 575 mln today. The number of PCs in emerging markets will grow at a 31% compounded annual growth rate .

Now add to this number that each of these are replaced on an average 3-5 yrs which is where the sleeping giant waits to strike. Now we're already looking at over 1 billion pc's waiting to strike back.

Now factor in Russia which has long been dubbed a hub of tech fraud, credit-card holders have been justifiably wary about using their plastic there. Travelers have been warned that after charging a dinner to their card in Russia, that number could be copied and used even after the owner left the country.

Apart from anecdotal evidence, there are some solid reasons for switching to a paranoid "cash only" existence. Notably, an unknown number of PIN codes giving access to credit- and debit-card accounts were stolen in mid-1999 after a security breach at a Moscow card-processing center. Subsequently, many cardholders had their checking accounts cleaned out, in a rare example of a massive PIN theft.

According to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center's 2001 Internet Fraud Report (PDF), Russia is at the bottom of a list of the top 10 countries for Internet fraud perpetrators, with only 0.2 percent of the identified perpetrators.

In the beginning of Id Theft one of the popular ways to get the info needed to create a fraud was dumpster diving. This was accomplished by picking through the trash at a resaruant,mall,bank. There you could obtain ssn,bank and cc acct numbers and so on.

The new breed of dumpster diver will go for your hardrive of your old discarded pc.

So you're looking to sell, or recycle your old computer. You've cleaned up the keyboard and spray pressurized air all over the box.

But have you deleted all your old files?

I mean REALLY deleted them? With all the rising threats from identity theft, and Internet mischief, I don't think it a bad idea to be proactive and clean-up that old hard drive.

So find out if important data was really gone after you hit the 'delete' key.

A few studies have been done where a number of purchased second-hand computers ramdomly selected and taken it to the guys at the Computer Clinic , Anywhere,USA.

They put our hard drive to the test. Within an hour, old files were being retrieved all over the place. Financial information, emails, addresses, even digital photos -- all of which were deleted by the previous users.

The computer techs were able to retrieve all the data by using simple off-the-shelf software.

OK, so how do you really get rid of the old files?

The trick is to use software that measures up to Department of Defense standards for deleting data. The software basically makes three passes over your hard drive, writing and rewriting the data as it goes. It's the equivalent of someone scribbling over a sheet of notebook paper, over and over again until it's nothing more than an unreadable mess.

You can buy the software at most software retailers, especially office supply chain stores like Staples and Office Depot. My recommendation is a program called "Drive Washer" -- it comes in a bright orange box (you can't miss it) and meets all the necessary specs. Remember to look for the Department of Defense standards marking on the box before you buy any program.

Now, if you're on a budget there's an excellent shareware program called "Darik's Boot and Nuke". I planned on listing more software here, but this one is really all you need.

If you just plan on donating your computer, then you can't go wrong with Goodwill. Using DoD software, they wipe every hard drive that comes their way, as well as practicing environmentally friendly disposal practices.