How much is your hard disk worth to hackers?

Losing a laptop is always painful, often raising the awkward question of backups when it’s too late. But whether your lost laptop perished of age or disappeared from your bag in a pub, that pain can take on a financial dimension too. Unless your data was encrypted or the laptop was disposed of securely, the blunt truth of the matter is that you’re at risk of exposure to the dark market. Your personal data is valuable, and cyber criminals will pay for everything from bank logins and credit card details to the perhaps less obvious lists of contacts and email conversations. But just how much is your hard disk worth to a hacker? In this feature we’ll find out.