HALIFAX — A spokesman for military says an investigation is underway after a Halifax man found a hard drive at a recycling depot that he says contains information including the names and numbers of defence personnel.
Pete Stevens, who works in the electronics industry, says he found the hard drive about a year ago at a recycling depot and suspected that it previously belonged to the military after running recovery software.
He says he recently decided to sift through the hundreds of files after hearing about security breaches at the military's East Coast intelligence centre and Canadian Forces Base Halifax.
Stevens says he recovered about 10 G of data from the 30 G hard drive, including 6,000 photos, spreadsheets with the names and numbers of military personnel and their families, and completed applications for security clearance.
He says recovering personal information from discarded hard drives is not uncommon, but he was surprised and concerned in this case because of the nature of the information.
Stevens says military officials came to retrieve the hard drive on Friday.
Military spokesman Maj. Martell Thompson says an investigation is being conducted.
