Data Destruction 5.8

Question 1

Data Destruction and Media Sanitiaztion

Answer 1

Disposal becomes a legal issues. Some information must not be destroyed and thus, often gets stored offsite. You don’t want critical information in the trash. People WILL dumpster dive, recycling can be a security concern, you have to physically destroy the media. If you need to reuse the storage device, you have to sanitize the media for reuse and ensure there is nothing left behind.

Question 2

Protect Your Rubbish

Answer 2

You have to secure your garbage with physical security controls such as locks and fences. Your documents need to be shredded, or burned. If you burn the docs, there is no recovering it at all. You can also turn the paper into pulp, and create recycled paper out of it.

Question 3

Physical Destruction

Answer 3

If you need to destroy a storage device, you can shred/pulverize it, drill/hammer it, or use electromagnetic (degaussing) to remove the magnetic field. You can also just melt them.

Question 4

Certificate of Destruction

Answer 4

Destruction is often done by a 3rd party, many companies don’t have the tools to destroy the hard drives themselves. A certificate of destruction will be issued to verify that the deed has been done.

Question 5

Sanitizing Media

Answer 5

When you need to reuse a storage device, you can instead purge the data. You have to completely remove the previous data by using a piece of software that wipes the data.