DATA Destruction - FAQ
Alternative Data Destruction Quicklinks:
Data Destruction Overview | Process | Pricing
- What’s different about this service compared to other destruction services?
Many existing recycling services rely exclusively on trust-based certification of remote (off-site)destruction. A significant dilemma for recyclers is that old PCs and the hard drives contained therein have residual value in secondary markets such as Eastern Europe and Africa. Therefore, the most commercially profitable ‘secure' recycling activity is to apply some cursory overwriting routine to ‘erase' data from the drive and sell it on in the secondary market.
Otherwise, even if hard drives are destroyed at remote sites in Ireland, there is little or no way to prove conclusively to an auditor that each and every drive has been processed properly. The disks must pass through many hands before the destruction step, and can remain in storage for extended periods of time. Unless you travel to the remote destruction site, you will have no guarantee that your requests have been fully complied with.
CDS destroys your hard drives and tapes before your eyes and magnetically degausses the drives prior to destruction. This represents a ‘belt and braces' approach and underlines our total commitment to ensure that your sensitive data will never appear in unwanted places.
For audit and compliance purposes, each destroyed device is certified by serial number and Asset ID/Username.
- We have a long-standing arrangement with our recycling partners, and have no reason to doubt their methods. Do we really need to destroy hard drives…no data has ever been discovered in this way?
...yet. Ask an auditor if this would be an acceptable position to adopt? Some matters are just too important to entrust to procedure. The first time that data is discovered in this way is once too many, and a misjudgement that few can afford to make.
- All of our redundant PC’s are overwritten before recycling. Isn’t that enough?
Overwriting to a recognised standard of security takes hours per drive (approx. 12 hours for a 160Gb drive based on our lab trials). This is simply too time-consuming and expensive for a physical device that might have a residual value of €10 or less. The ‘jury is out' on the effectiveness of overwriting. One massive flaw in this technique is that data residing in bad sectors is skipped. The amount of bad sectors in an average hard drive can be quite considerable. Another critical and commonly overlooked point is that non-functional hard drives cannot be overwritten.
- How much does drive destruction cost?
Our destruction service typically costs approximately 2% of the price of a new computer per hard disk. You can’t afford not to! - What about the WEEE directive? Aren’t PC manufacturers now responsible for recycling our old computers?
No, not in a ‘business to business' environment. As a business, the onus for disposal of PCs and other WEEE rests with you. Most PC manufacturers/suppliers have developed relationships with recycling agents with whom they work to recycle old PCs.As mentioned previously, the maximum recycling yield is obtained by reselling the PC into a secondary market, and this is what is likely to happen to your old PC(s). Unless you attend to the data on the hard drive, there is every possibility that your data may be extracted at a later time by a future owner/user.
In our experience, the notion of complete data security at end-of-life is not understood as widely as it should be. Our advice is to remove your hard drives (they contain data that is your property) and leave the remaining components to be recycled in compliance with WEEE regulations.
- What happens to the hard drive waste generated by CDS? Is it disposed of correctly?
CDS has entered into a relationship with a number of licenced and registered waste processors. Your hard drive and tape waste will be transferred to their facility and certified as recycled following delivery.
- Removing hard drives from our old machines is too time-consuming. Most of our drives wouldn’t actually contain any sensitive information.
This might be true, but trying to discern the sensitive from the non-sensitive is next to impossible when staring at a heap of old computers or hard drives. Not destroying each and every drive is a risky decision that may ultimately prove to be a false economy.In terms of hard drive extraction, CDS can withdraw hard drives from old computers on-site by special arrangement. Following removal, hard drives will be destroyed and certified on-site.
- We take a sledge hammer to our old drives in the car park
Not a bad start….. you're definitely on the right track!First consider that, despite the physical destruction, magnetic data will still exist on the surfaces of the disk platter(s).
Next consider your organisation's ability to prove (if required to) that destruction was carried out both completely and effectively. Therein lies the value of an independent and certified service.
Finally, consider the possible Health & Safety implications and employer and third party liability issues created by flying hard drive debris, not to mention the unapproved and untrained use of sledge hammers in the workplace! - Why is it necessary to destroy old tapes? We don’t even have a tape reader for these old formats?
Tapes are particularly risky because they tend to contain the complete data content of a business server, typically including all email correspondence, financials, sales data, client lists, staff details etc. Each tape is usually a nightly back-up, so each tape contains a full and incrementally larger amount of sensitive data relating to your business. The equipment to read old formats is still widely available (through equipment recyclers oddly enough!) as is the software to restore data content.
Alternative Data Destruction Quicklinks:
Data Destruction Overview | Process | Pricing
