Re: Why?
"Why should the landlord be under an obligation to check what's on the drives and clean them off? The landlord almost certainly wasn't selling stuff directly, but had contracted with a third party for disposal of everything left behind, from servers to whiteboards in conference rooms, in exchange for a cut of the sale proceeds. The landlord already got screwed for back rent, should they be more screwed by adding additional burdens on them?"
They seized the drives. They now own the drives, including any data on them. Are they legally allowed to own that data? If not, they need to remove it, sharpish. And particularly not sell it on to criminals. That makes you an accessory to identity theft, and that is a criminal offence in most jurisdictions. If there's evidence it was used to commit fraud, expect extradition requests to start flying around.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
