1. La pratica di rifiutare sistematicamente ad un ufficio o installazione tecnica di estrarre dati confidenziali, specialmente informazioni compromettenti per la sicurezza (‘dumpster’ e' un Americanismo per quello che in altre parti e' detto skip (N.d.T. = cassonetto dell'immondizia) ). Tornando indietro ai tempi del monopolio AT&T, before paper shredders became common office equipment, phone phreaks (vedi phreaking) used to organize regular dumpster runs against phone company plants and offices. Discarded and damaged copies of AT&T internal manuals taught them much. The technique is still rumored to be a favorite of crackers operating against careless targets.

2. The practice of raiding the dumpsters behind buildings where producers and/or consumers of high-tech equipment are located, with the expectation (usually justified) of finding discarded but still-valuable equipment to be nursed back to health in some hacker's den. Experienced dumpster-divers not infrequently accumulate basements full of moldering (but still potentially useful) cruft.