5.6 data and system disposal

Question 1

legislation

Answer 1

safe disposal of computer equipment to help reduce environmental impact

waste electronic and electrical equipment- gives guidance on how hazardous materials should be disposed of safely. includes materials such as mercury or toner cartridges in printers

Question 2

waste acceptance criteria

Answer 2

before equipment is sent to a landfill it has to pass this set of rules, hazardous elements found in computer monitors will not pass criteria therefore should not be accepted to landfills

Question 3

hazardous waste directive

Answer 3

ensure that businesses store hazardous materials and use authorized businesses to dispose of the waste, eg mercury and hexavalent chromium

Question 4

data protection act

Answer 4

specifies data should be held only kept for a reasonable amount of time until its securely deleted

Question 5

overwriting

Answer 5

overwriting is when data is sent to the hard disk drive to overwrite the binary values currently on the drive and resetting

process should be done several times to ensure data has been wiped

means the drive can be used for other purposes later

Question 6

electromagnetic wiping

Answer 6

uses a machine called a degausser which has a very strong electromagnetic coil to completely wipe the hard disk drive

many companies uses degaussers to be sure that data is no longer on the devices they have used so it cant be restored and accessed by unauthorized users

expensive but it can be used again for other devices