I had an employee provide a resignation before I was on site. The employee then unplugged a desktop computer and left the premises with it. The computer contained pricing data, customer data, email communications, login credentials to several important websites, login info to vendor websites.
I filed a police report and the police were able to recover the computer, however the data on the machine was wiped or the drive was replaced.
What should I do?
They don’t need special tools, even a single slow format means all regular recovery software is useless and you need data recovery experts. Special tools overwrite multiple times with random data, making it pretty much impossible to recover data even for professionals.
What you are saying is true for quick format only.
there are ways
Back in the 90’s when I was in the military the NSA made up a bunch of rules for half a dozen slow complete formats or physically destroy the HD platters with a wire brush.
Yes, because someone with the skills and (physical) tools can still access data on a drive after a slow format. As I also mentioned. But your 08/15 recovery software wont be able to do anything with a slow formatted drive.