Sanitizer and Shredder launched in UK

Paranoid PC users and those obsessed with data hygiene can now get their hard disks deep down clean thanks to the launch of two new products. Sanitizer and Shredder, produced by Texas-based Infraworks, clean hard drives so thoroughly it's as if there was nothing there in the first place. The Sanitizer range of products is a corporate data buster that can overwrite hard disks up to 999 times depending on the obsessive behaviour of some users. Shredder works just like an office paper shredder so that any files that are 'deleted' are actually destroyed. Thousands of PCs get dumped each year as companies ditch old technology for new. But under the Data Protection Act it is an offence to discard a computer containing personal data and can lead to a Crown Court prosecution and unlimited fines. The data-busting software is distributed by Technical Asset Management (TAM), the UK's biggest computer IT remarketing and recycling company. Prices for both products start at £155, which shouldn't trouble corporate users but will certainly make home users think twice. It's just a shame that the products weren't available sooner. Lincolnshire County Council got in trouble when its old PCs re-emerged onto the second-hand market still containing files on recent child abuse cases. And one high street retailer unwittingly sold a refurbished laptop still containing confidential psychiatric patient files. ®