Importance Of Hard Drive Physical Destruction
Whether an individual or part of an organization, we use hard drives to store sensitive information not just about ourselves but also of our customers. At some point, we have to get rid of these hard drives, one way or another, but simply pressing the “reformat” button on our computers to erase its content does not cut it.
Data destruction is one of the most important responsibilities of an organization dealing with records and other sensitive customer information. If hard drives are not disposed of securely, the consequences can be devastating. Aside from reformatting your hard drive (the most common yet the riskiest), there are several other ways you can destroy data. Some examples are software deletion, degaussing, and physical data destruction.
Importance of Data Destruction
You’ve witnessed how lives are inconvenienced when unscrupulous people use their data. Consequences may include lost or stolen intellectual property, compliance violations, monetary penalties, and/or criminal charges. Companies may also suffer irreparable damage to their reputation. Thus, you must place great importance on this aspect of protection when forming a secure records management plan.
Software Deletion or Overwriting
Software deletion or overwriting can be an effective way to erase existing data on the disk. It’s also easy to use (you can get the job done with a few clicks), cheap, and can be applied to a number of computers and laptops at the office, depending on the license you buy.
However, there’s really no data “deleted” using this method. The software simply overwrites a new layer of data, leaving the previous data layer intact. Since most software can’t physically remove the data from hard drives no matter how many times it is used to overwrite the data, this becomes a problem, especially for companies and government departments that require a complete erasure solution for sensitive data.
Degaussing
This method uses a high-powered magnet to affect the magnetic field of things like hard disks, magnetic tape, or floppy disks. This is done using a degausser, a device specifically designed to carry out this method.
Using only a limited amount of time and labor resources to make data unrecoverable completely makes this method ideal for dealing with highly sensitive data. However, this is impractical for companies or individuals who do not want to dispose of hundreds of hard drives. Degausser products can be expensive and heavy, and their electromagnetic fields can be strong enough that they can produce collateral damage to vulnerable equipment nearby.
Physical Destruction
While physically destroying hard drives may sound like the most satisfying and relatable among this list, there’s more to it than simply using a sledgehammer to smash your hard drive.
Physical destruction should be carried out by high-powered equipment only. The good news is that there are professionals who use the latest technology to wipe the hard drive’s existing data before physically destroying the disk. This ensures a more thorough approach to data destruction.
As you might have figured out, smashed pieces of a hard drive provide the highest assurance of data being truly disposed of. There is very little chance that someone will be able to reconstruct or even recover whatever’s inside.
Xpresshed.com is a team that specializes in data destruction. With a team of experts willing to help you out, data destruction has never been convenient and hassle-free. To know more about the full suite of data destruction services Xpresshed offers, please feel free to visit their website here.
