HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley and eDiscovery have become the compliance buzzwords of this decade. Securing data is no small matter in fact it can be downright scary if you take a good hard look. I remember taking a course in Security that had me ready to sell all my possessions and move into a cave somewhere in Montana. One component of data security that has long been argued is what to do with obsolete hard disk drives(HDD). Many differing views exist on which standards and tools are needed to make the drive unrecoverable. One product I reviewed had 7 different methods of erasing data offering the option of Gutmann (35 passes) DoD (3 or 7 passes) and Pseudorandom (customizable). Many argue that a single pass would do the trick perhaps using a tool like SDELETE (SysInternals fans would remember this one). One company called Security Engineered Machinery has come up with several sure fire (and very interesting) ways to deal with obsolete hard drives making them non-recoverable. The SEM Model 0101 Sledgehammer Hard Drive Crusher delivers 12,000 pounds of force to the HDD to ensure that the contents are unusable. Not enough? Well the Model 22 HDD Hard Drive Disintegrator will crunch down those hard drives 10 at a time in just 30 minutes. Leaving behind nothing but scrap metal. You need to see the demo video it is just too cool!! Of course these options may not be fiscally optional for all organizations so Security Engineered Machinery offer shredding services starting at just $7.00 per HDD and as low as $3.00 per drive up to 500 (further quantities require you contact them for pricing). Security Engineered Machinery also offers destruction services for full systems and media. Ensuring that obsolete systems, hard drives and media are destroyed and dealt with effectively is certainly better than taking that old system and giving it to some bosses kid. Who will undoubtedly have the system loaded with spyware, root-kits and viruses within a week? At which time you are praying that the erase techniques you used are really effective.
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