Dumpster Diving

Process whereby the attacker examines the contents of waste bins, skips or recycling bins for the purpose of obtaining confidential information, such as invoices, email printouts or company memos. Dumpster diving can also refer to the collection and analysis of electronic waste items, such as old computer systems, memory devices or smartphones for useful information. This attack can be prevented by using cross-cut shredders on paper waste and performing secure erasure on devices. The physical destruction of standalone storage devices and storage media contained in electronic devices is always preferable though.