Garbology

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Garbology is the study of refuse and trash. It is an academic discipline and has a major outpost at the University of Arizona directed by William Rathje. The project started in 1971, originating from an idea of two students for a class project. It is a major source of information on the nature and changing patterns in modern refuse. Industries wishing to demonstrate that discards originating with their products are (or are not) important in the trash stream are avid followers of this research, as are municipalities wishing to learn whether some parts of the trash they collect has any salable value.

The studies of garbology and archaeology often overlap, because fossilized or otherwise time-modified trash is quite often the only remnant of ancient populations that can be found. For those who left no buildings, no writing, no tombs, no trade goods, and no pottery, refuse and trash are likely to be the only possible sources of information. In addition, ancient garbage sometimes contains information available in no other way, such as food remains, pollen traces (of then local plants), and broken tools.

In addition, Rathje's research uncovered some misconceptions about landfills. In particular, it was revealed that the rate of natural biodegradation is much slower than expected.

Garbology (often called Dumpster Driving) has been a recognized act of corporate espionage for many years now. The use of Garbology in this scenario not only includes the physical sorting of papers form the rubbish bin but analysis of files found in the computers recycle bin. Many users of modern computers tend to be forgetful with new passwords, so they are written down on pieces of paper and are generally stored somewhere in the vicinity of the workstation. If this password can be recovered then the attacker has full access to the users encrypted files. Analysis of the users recycle bin can contain not only information about passwords but information about the user. The greater the knowledge about the user that is possessed by the attacker, the easier it is to guess passwords based on pets, sports teams or whatever dominates the users life. Another type of Garbology is the analysis of temp files. Temp files are created on the system disk when a document are opened and is supposed to be a form of backup copy. Sometimes, depending on the encryption software used the temp files are not deleted after files are encrypted. Leaving the plaintext data open for all that use the system.

Garbology is a highly successful way of determining user’s passwords and personal details, and would work not only in the occasional access scenario but if the computer was stolen as well. When the attacker has occasional access to the computer his\her time is limited so the Garbology technique would be perfect.

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