Microsoft says PC 'Recycle Bin' Yielded Google Clue
Posted by malebolgia on 11 August 2005 - 18:42 · 38 comments & 5017 views
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#1 Posted by viserov on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:03
- Ouch for Google. It looks like MS is in the right here.
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#2 Posted by Sushubh on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:04
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#3 Posted by monacelli on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:05
- Perhaps he left that doc in the recycle bin for someone to find.
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#4 Posted by Trix on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:07
- and what proof is there that is isn't faked? :|
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#5 Posted by LTD on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:13
- I should do that at work.
Check everyone's windows recycle bin when they're at lunch. I bet I'd find lots of good stuff in there: personal letters, porn, lots of unmentionables.
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(1 reply)
#6 Posted by magik on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:14
- There's got to be some kind of privacy laws being broken here
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(2 replies)
#7 Posted by markjensen on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:22
- You think that if Mr. Lee was so sharp, he would know how to properly delete important files!

As for the "incriminating evidence", well duh! Of course the possibility of a lawsuit would be a concern that would need to be discussed before hiring. -
#7.1 Posted by MDboyz on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:45
- If you empty the trash bin, there are still many other ways to get it back tho.
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#7.2 Posted by PseudoRandomDragon on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:01
- Which is why I suspect MS went ahead and examined the hard drive for such documents rather than stumbling onto it from the recycle bin.
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(1 reply)
#8 Posted by zerone on 11 Aug 2005 - 19:36
Let me Guess:
"How_Im_planning_2_betray_Microsoft_(If_you_are_Bill_Gates_press_delete).doc"
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(10 replies)
#9 Posted by midsummerstorm on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:04
- I have a little tip for Mr. Lee:
Wise men use SHIFT+DEL
Anyway, if this is for real, which I doubt --HD scanning being a better explanation-- then it's really funny. I mean, c'mon, who can be *that stupid*? And this is the employee for whom two of the biggest companies on Earth are fighting? Silly, silly boy...
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#9.1 Posted by ThunderRiver on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:07
- NO.. sorry.. that's security by obscurity in your opinion.
The wiser men uses PGP to shred the document into pieces.. -
#9.2 Posted by excalpius on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:13
- The wisest men physically destroy the drive after wiping it with uber magnets.
or...
Don't do anything to circumvent their contract in the first place.
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#9.3 Posted by jtl on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:24
- Sure, then you'll get charged with vandalism; plus it'll look like you're attempting to cover up something, which wouldn't bode well for you.
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#9.4 Posted by Chanser on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:26
- Wave a big powerful magnet on the hard disks or hammer those hard disks to bit
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#9.5 Posted by Sub on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:54
- Hammer it! I'll use my electron microscope to read the the data bit by bit!
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#9.6 Posted by nX07 on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:57
- WISE MEN Remember things, and do not have to type/write them down

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#9.7 Posted by midsummerstorm on 11 Aug 2005 - 23:41
QUOTE NO.. sorry.. that's security by obscurity in your opinion.
The wiser men uses PGP to shred the document into pieces..
Well, I bet if Mr. Lee would've known about cryptography, and used PGP to add public/private key security to his mails, and since keys are kinda long and hard to remember, he'd have a file on his desktop called "My PGP Private key.txt"
QUOTE The wisest men physically destroy the drive after wiping it with uber magnets.
Well, I can imagine the situation:
employee#1: So, have you seen that Lee guy today?
employee#2: Nope.
employee#1: I think he's onto something.
employee#2: And why's that?
employee#1: I don't know... It's... Just the little things, y'know.
employee#2: Like?
employee#1: Y'know, yesterday I saw him by the water cooler with this big ACME magnet and reading some instructions manual.
employee#2: Well, maybe he's helping his son with some school project, right?
employee#1: Yeah, yeah, that's just what I thought. But, y'know, today...
employee#2: Huh?
employee#1: Well, he had this, y'know, kinda huge demolition hammer, and y'know, that's not the kind of thing you usually bring to the office.
employee#2: Man, you're just paranoid. He's a nice guy... What's that noise comming from his office?
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#9.9 Posted by ObCeeDee on 12 Aug 2005 - 07:32
- Wise men use for example Best Crypt for an encrypted partition + the ability to wipe documents and overwrite them
or something like that :p -
#9.10 Posted by Octol on 13 Aug 2005 - 02:10
QUOTE Wave a big powerful magnet on the hard disks...
You need to be careful what you do to a Hard Drive.
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(3 replies)
#10 Posted by christracy on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:38
- im trying to figure out what is so important about this guy? is he gonna cure cancer? i mean yeah he's a high level exec but hell COO's leave one company to be another company's COO all the time its not like its something new. they are fighting over him like a couple of girls if u ask me.
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#10.1 Posted by Sn1p3t on 11 Aug 2005 - 20:58
- They're not fighting over him so much as fighting over the knowledge he obtained at Microsoft.
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#10.2 Posted by christracy on 11 Aug 2005 - 21:11
- yeah i understand that but dont CxO's know stuff about the company they leave too? and u never see them fighting over those guys.
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#11 Posted by lylesback2 on 11 Aug 2005 - 21:32
- uuuuuh oh... looks like somebody is in trouble!
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#12 Posted by Surr3al on 11 Aug 2005 - 21:52
- If this is allowable, whats to say cracking open the drive and just do a scan for any deleted files not found in the ntfs table? Meaning... deleted files that weren't over written yet.
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(4 replies)
#13 Posted by Foub on 11 Aug 2005 - 21:58
- Good thing I don't use Recycle Bin. I use a different program that shreds and then writes over several times the deleted file.

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#13.2 Posted by snappyfool on 12 Aug 2005 - 02:19
- why?
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#13.3 Posted by Foub on 12 Aug 2005 - 10:08
- Haven't you been reading this article? Recycle Bin isn't all that secure.
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#13.4 Posted by snappyfool on 12 Aug 2005 - 12:22
- well, of course leaving it in the recycle bin isn't secure. but you can delete it from the recycle bin (or even skip the recycle bin altogether) without having to use a shredder. and yes, i know that you can still trace files if they haven't been written over, and yes maybe in this case he should have used a shredder, but my question to you was why do YOU use a shredder? i.e. what files you deleting that are so important you want to hide them from big corporations, the police, government etc.?
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#14 Posted by Gullop on 12 Aug 2005 - 00:40
- BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSTED
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#15 Posted by quigley0 on 12 Aug 2005 - 03:24
I have to say that I am really tired of this story. I mean, who cares?
I guess just because it is Google vs MSFT that everyone is interested.
If it was Ford vs Honda no one would care...
Well, I guess they would in the Motor forums
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#16 Posted by parhamreza on 12 Aug 2005 - 06:33
- Damn. I have the same problem. I always forget to empty the recycle bin and leave my stuff lying out in the open for others to find. So frustrating... though potentially lifesaving as well
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#17 Posted by PR. on 12 Aug 2005 - 09:15
- The moral of this story is: Don't use your current employees computer when getting another job!
Where I work I have seen several people do this and to me its the equivalent of selling drugs in the reception of a police station.
Do that stuff from home!
malebolgia
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According to papers filed with a Washington state court by the software giant, a document that describes terms of an apparent agreement between Google and Lee was "recovered from the 'Recycle Bin' of one of Dr. Lee's computers."
The document indicates Google foresaw possible litigation in hiring Lee to head its China operations. It could bolster the software titan's claim that Lee's new position violates a contract signed with Microsoft, and that Google has encouraged Lee to break that contract.
The head of IT, David Stirling, noted that the review also identified "disproportionate" support costs associated with the open source kit: "An estimated 25 percent of additional staff time was routinely required to install and maintain open source-based systems," he said.
Stirling also wanted to avoid splashing out £100,000 on a third party application to meet the deadline for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, and instead chose to overhaul the entire IT system. He adds that he is still making a saving overall, by making the switch.
The force will now be using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server to handle incoming FOIA requests. This, according to NIck McGrath, MS' head of platform strategy, will make it easy for them to track both inbound requests, and their responses.
Stirling says the move to MS was not an ideological choice:
"This is about business needs, purely and simply. We're not abandoning open source. Some of it we're keeping. Our major incident system, for example, is moving from something else to Linux. But for desktop software, or applications shared with other forces, it makes sense for us to use Microsoft." ®