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According to the latest IT surveys, security has surpassed even cost with respect to importance in asset disposition. The only assured way of destroying data is to completely destroy a hard drive. This is not feasible for asset remarketing or redeployment, which is why undergoing thorough data sanitization is critical to asset disposal.
Did you know that most ATA drives manufactured after the year 2000 have a built-in security feature? Some SCSI drives have it also. The feature is a “Security Erase Unit” instruction which destroys data at the physical level, including data residing between tracks and bad-sector data. This data is not normally accessed by drive-wipe software. Certain utilities can provide access to this special instruction. Hard drives (MFM) manufactured prior to 2000 lack this instruction and can only be wiped via software procedures.
Using DOD Standard 5200.22-M software for erasure assures that a majority of data is eliminated. To be compliant with the DOD standard, a three-pass elimination must be used. This is a very time consuming task. For that reason, it is recommended that an external vendor be used.
Most commercial institutions have some type of erasure policy in place, in accordance with security guidelines. Many organizations leave it up to external providers, however, without ever auditing them with respect to how data sanitization is handled and by what method(s). It is critical to have internal policies in place, plus procedures of inquiry with respect to the external provider.
Hesstech provides multi-disk erase using DOD-approved drive wipe software, validity testing, and provides shredding to ensure complete destruction of drives.
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