When donating computer, erase hard drive

Q: How do I erase my hard drive safely so I can donate my computer to a charity? The operating system must remain intact and operational. The personal details must be totally erased with zero cost for the donor or the charity/nonprofit.

A: There are any number of secure erase programs that should do the trick, said Jeff Crume, executive information technology security architect at IBM.

The safest thing is to do a secure erase of the entire hard drive. You can find free tools at download.com and sourceforge.net by searching for "secure erase" or "secure delete."

Joel Broadway, president of CMIT Solutions of North Raleigh, recommends using disk-cleaning software such as Active@KillDisk, which offers a free version at www.killdisk.com/eraser.htm and paid versions that meet U.S. Department of Defense standards.

However, there is no way to erase the hard drive totally while also preserving the operating system, he noted, so you'll have to erase the hard drive, then reinstall the operating system. If your PC is old or broken, there are many retailers who will recycle it for a small fee, Broadway added. Office Depot charges $5 to $15 to recycle computers and other electronics. The Environmental Protection Agency has a list of eCycling partners at www.epa.gov/plugin.

Rapid response

IBM recently released some disturbing statistics in its twice-yearly X-Force IT security report.

Most critically, 94 percent of all browser-related online hacker exploits occur within 24 hours of a system vulnerability being disclosed to the public, according to the report.

That means hackers' attacks are on the Internet before people even know they have a vulnerability that needs to be patched in their systems.

Other findings:

Online threats have evolved from the operating system to the Web browser to browser plug-ins, small programs that add features or functions to browsers.

In the first six months of 2008, about 78 percent of Web browser exploits targeted browser plug-ins.

As online games and virtual communities continue to gain popularity, they are becoming a target for cyber-criminals. The top four password-stealing Trojans were aimed at gamers, with the goal being to steal their virtual assets and sell them for real money in online marketplaces.

Last year's complex forms of e-mail spam that used images or file attachments almost have disappeared.

Now, spammers are using messages that consist of a few simple words and a URL, making them difficult for spam filters to detect.

Reach Stump the Geeks at stumpthegeeks@newsobserver.com.