Lyn Robison is a research director at Burton Group, an IT analysis firm with headquarters in Salt Lake City that provides services to Global 2000 organizations. Lyn is a frequent speaker at IT industry conferences, most recently at the 2009 MIT Information Quality Symposium. He has authored two books and numerous articles on computer-related topics. Contact him at LynRobison@yahoo.com.
What can happen to information on a discarded hard drive?
In a Ghana market, a team of journalism students investigating the global electronic waste business bought a computer hard drive that turned out to contain sensitive information about multimillion-dollar defense contracts among the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and Northrop Grumman. They discovered that the nations of West Africa have become a repository not only for the Western world's electronic waste, but also for its "used" data.
Is losing data from a business computer common?
Having a computer retailer replace a faulty hard disk, taking a laptop to a recycling center or discarding an outdated PC can put sensitive information in the wrong hands.
Are there additional problems possible in Utah?
If you do business here, throwing away a computer hard drive could cost you up to $100,000. The Protection of Personal Information Act was enacted by the Legislature in 2006 and requires anyone conducting business in Utah to properly destroy records containing personal information.
What can be done to protect data on a discarded disk?
Utah businesses can use a software program that overwrites the data on the entire disk. This tends to be time-consuming, and may still leave behind some sensitive data. A degaussing machine that uses a powerful magnetic field to destroy all magnetically recorded data can be expensive, they work only on magnetic media and it is impossible to tell by looking at the drive if the degaussing process was successful.
Are there other options?
Businesses can purchase a hard disk-erasing device that can perform a more thorough job than the above options. Physically shredding, crushing or melting the hard disks in order to destroy the media is another solution but the machines can cost upward of $10,000 and the business may need to comply with safety, hazmat and disposal requirements.
What's the safest and easiest method?
The most reliable is to take hard drives and other storage media to a recycler that specializes in electronic media destruction/recycling and that lets customers witness the process for verification purposes. One such facility is Metech Recycling in Clearfield. Businesses also can arrange to have hard drives and other media picked up, but that means they also must obtain documentation of the chain-of-custody for auditing and compliance purposes. One company that provides such a service is Utah Data Destruction.
More information is available at http://www.utahdatadestruction.com.
Tom Harvey
