EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine November 2016 | Page 39
Servers, Laptops, and Desktops
Deleting files or even reformatting a hard drive is not enough to
keep data safe from recovery. There are two methods for ensuring
your data is no longer accessible and retrievable from hard drives
on servers, laptops, and desktops:
Physical destruction. The simplest and most effective way
of destroying the disk is to remove it and physically destroy the
hardware. Anything from a hammer to power tools will do the job,
but one has to be rather strong—as well as enthusiastic—about this
type of destruction process.
Software tools. Drive wipe utility software is available for
download (examples are Hiren’s Boot CD and DBAN) and will
overwrite your data in multiple passes making it very difficult to
access in the future. The more times you overwrite your data, the
less likely it can be recovered. This process requires the software
download to be burned onto a standard CD-ROM disk, which is
then used as a boot up tool when turning on the computer to be
wiped. The drive wipe process will take several hours to complete,
so be sure the device is plugged in and not running off the battery.
Don’t forget to treat removable media the same as a hard
drive – USB thumb drives, external hard drives, and CD/DVDs all
should be destroyed or wiped.
Remember, once a
technology device is in the
trash, it enters the public
domain and can be taken by
anyone, including “dumpster
diving” identity thieves or
other criminals.
Smartphones, Tablets, and iOS devices
There is a huge risk with mobile devices. People often upgrade
to the latest version of their chosen mobile device and commonly
forget to delete the data off the old device. All smart phones have
an option for factory reset—use it when you are no longer using
the phone. You can get instructions on how to properly reset other
mobile devices through the manufacturer’s support website.
Alternatively, you can always destroy the phone or other device as
you would a hard drive.
NOVEMBER 2016 | 39 |