In the realm of data security, technicians and systems administrators must learn a wide variety techniques for keeping electronic information safe. Whether it is making sure passwords for users on a network are not reused, or maintaining an encrypted VPN, there is a constant and dynamic thought process involved with computer security.
Though keeping usable data safe is a priority, it is equally important to know how to destroy information that is no longer needed.
If your business is up to par with common information technology practices, it is possible that you may be on a schedule for computer rotation. Every three or so years, a portion of your company’s computers are replaced with new machines.
If the older computers are not shuffled off to a testing environment, kept as spares, or passed down to those needing less powerful computers, what happens to them?
With the increasing push for better environmental standards, your community may have a recycling facility where you can bring old computers. Computer manufacturers like Dell have programs where they will recycle your old machine alongside the purchase of a new one.
There is also the possibility that you may choose to donate older computer to non-profit charity type organizations for their use. Keeping that in mind, what do you do with the data stored on these computers?
Before you make the decision to get rid of your old machines, it is in your best interest to come up with a policy for destroying computer data. There are a few different options when it comes to data destruction, and you may use more than one depending on the destination of the computer. Perhaps you have a couple of computers you wish to donate to the Salvation Army. In this instance, you want to keep the hardware intact, and look for software that wipes data off of a hard drive.
If you intend to use software to clean data from a hard disk, it is good to find one that will do a 35-pass DoD (Department of Defense) wiping routine, and will erase the entire hard drive. You will also want to make sure that you use a bootable disc based utility.
After all, what good would running a tool in, say, Windows be if the operating system is left intact? Doing this would mean that the software has to skip parts of the hard disk in order to avoid deleting Windows. If it misses Windows, it is possible to miss other important data, which needs to be destroyed.
As an example, Darik’s Boot and Nuke (found here: http://www.dban.org/ ) is one such software that runs from a bootable CD, and can perform a variety of operations with regard to hard drive wiping.
Though this tool, and similar products, may take hours to complete, they do a much better job than simply deleting files from within Windows. If a computer’s hard drive is to remain intact, after wiping the hard disk, you can reinstall Windows, or use a manufacturer supplies disc set to restore the factory default settings.
However, if your intention was not to have a usable hard drive, and you simply want to destroy the hard drive, then move towards a physical form of destruction. Should this be the option you are considering, remember that the hard drive platters are your target. With the newer solid state drives, the whole drive should be eliminated.
How might you go about this? For regular hard drives, crushing or breaking the platters up is not difficult. You want to get past the external casing first though. Simply beating on the casing may not destroy the hard drive platters. The best method here is to open the casing with a screwdriver, or appropriate tool, and break the platters with a hammer. This method is a safe bet for data elimination.
Physical destruction works well, when you have one or two hard drives to break. However, if you have a stack of thirty, for instance, you may want to consider contacting a recycling facility that shreds hard drives. There are companies who specialize in hardware recycling and destruction. Do make certain that their policies include a guarantee that the hard drives will be destroyed.
The ultimate goal of destruction it to ensure that no data leaves your company, and winds up in the hands of someone else. Whichever method you choose, make certain that everyone involved understands the process and the end result requirements.
If you have a little Electrical Engineering know-how, build yourself a electrical magnet, and destroy everything with it.
Has worked wonders in 10+ years for me.
Our hard drives have indeed served a great deal of help for us and it is but proper to have them disposed of using the most eco-friendly manner. Now, there is no need to smash your hard drive with a hammer or have your pet dog chew it. There are shredding companies that do not just cater to paper, they also shred microfilms and destroy hard drives. Before you have your hard drive destroyed for your protection, be sure that you have copies of those data that you will still be needing.
We've been destroying hard drives for clients for many years and the only sure fire method to really make sure they're clean of data is either via a 7 pass wipe, degaussing or shredding to particulate level. Of course, the level of boring decreases from former to latter, with the final solution being quite dramatic. However, that being said, data destruction is simply the most important aspect when disposing of old IT, especially from a corporate environment.