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Mobile Onsite Secure Data Removal & Data Destruction
All organisations both in the private and public sector have a duty under the Data Protection Act to ensure that personal and company data does not fall into the public domain. One of the key parts of Euro Recycling's WEEE recycling service is the secure destruction of the information held on the data bearing devices like PC, laptop and server hard drives as well as media such as video/data tapes, floppy discs and CDs/DVDs that we collect. The destruction can be performed on the customer's site or back at our WEEE Authorised Treatment Facility.
Euro Recycling uses several different techniques for destroying confidential and sensitive information on data bearing devices depending on the technology of the storage media and the sensitivity of the information on that media.
Physical Destruction via Shredding or Disintegration
Euro Recycling operate various vehicle mounted and static industrial shredders and disintegrators. These machines are capable of reducing all types of data storage devices including computer hard disk drives, data tapes, CDs/DVDs, mobile phones, USB memory sticks, digital cameras etc. into particles as small as 2mm in size. Generally the more sensitive the information then the smaller the particles need to be. Currently the Government Standard for the most sensitive Top Secret information stored on computer hard discs and CDs/DVDs is 6mm and 2mm respectively.
The time taken to reduce a computer hard drive down to 6mm compared to say 20mm is much greater therefore there is a cost implication. For the majority of confidential data the Commercial Best Practice accepted by both the Government and Private sectors is BS8470. Euro Recycling's mobile onsite shredders conform to BS8470 and have the Government's stamp of approval having been CESG Claims Test Marked, CCTM.
CESG are the Government Authority on Information Assurance and are part of GCHQ. They are responsible for approving the various products and services used in Information Assurance including data destruction.
Destruction by Degaussing
Another way of physically destroying magnetic media is by degaussing. Degaussing destroys the confidential and sensitive information on data bearing devices by use of a large magnetic field. Due to its very nature as degaussing uses a magnetic field it is only good for magnetic devices (hard drives, floppy discs and tapes) but is useless for optical media like CDs or DVD. Optical media still needs to be physically destroyed by shredding or disintegration.
Also a degaussed hard drive still looks the same as it did before it was degaussed so it is usually common practice to physically destroy the data bearing device after degaussing. Degaussing is only really needed when the device needs to be taken offsite for physical destruction. However as Euro Recycling can bring their shredders onsite it is questionable whether degaussing is necessary at all.
Should degaussing be required Euro Recycling can degauss magnetic media onsite to both CESG Lower and Higher Level using CESG approved products. CESG Lower Level is for Government Protectively Marked assets up to and including Impact Level 3 - Restricted. CESG Higher Level is for Protectively Marked assets up to and including Impact Level 6 - Top Secret. Commercial organizations, unless they are working with HMG Protectively Marked material, rarely need to degauss above CESG Lower Level.
Euro Recycling's mobile onsite degaussing service has the Government's stamp of approval having been CESG Claims Test Marked, CCTM.
Overwriting by Data Wiping
Data bearing devices cannot be reused if they are physical destroyed by shredding or degaussing. If reuse is required (generally for hard disc drives) the confidential data on the data bearing device needs to be erased by overwriting with random information. The time taken to overwrite a device depends on the storage capacity of that device but is typically one minute per gigabyte so overwriting and 80 Gbyte hard disc drive can take several hours. As disc drives get bigger in storage capacity then the time to wipe them will increase. Also the device has to be fully functional and as many hard disc drives are discarded because they are faulty then Data Wiping is not an option. Therefore more often than not it is more cost effective to shred hard drives to ensure the confidential information is destroyed and install a new clean hard drive if the host PC is to be reused.
Euro Recycling use both Blancco and Kroll Ontrack data wiping software for data wiping. Both products are CESG Higher level approved to IL6 – Top Secret.
Euro Recycling's mobile onsite wiping service has the Government's stamp of approval having been CESG Claims Test Marked, CCTM.
