Sometimes a good technician can retrieve data from a hard drive by physically taking it apart and loading it into another machine.

CNN: dotCOM Tools: Healthy PCs

Like the OLPC laptop, the decTOP's innovations come out of a drive to bring computers and the Internet to rural Africa and Asia: Data Evolution acquired the machine's hardware from Advanced Micro Devices, whose "50x15" program seeks to take 50% of the world's population online by 2015.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Like the OLPC laptop, the decTOP's innovations come out of a drive to bring computers and the Internet to rural Africa and Asia: Data Evolution acquired the machine's hardware from Advanced Micro Devices (nyse: AMD - news - people ), whose "50x15" program seeks to take 50% of the world's population online by 2015.

FORBES: The $85 Computer

Still, even data stored only on a local computer or drive can be compromised by a determined hacker who targets it when the machine is online, or if it is lost or stolen and falls into the wrong hands.

WSJ: Gathering Vitals Of Your So-Called Scattered Life