There are a number of questions to think about when considering your own personal or business data security. What is a hard drive? How does it work? How can you protect the data on it?
What is a hard drive? The hard drive is a piece of hardware responsible for storing information about your computer or mobile phone etc. Basically it consists of a couple of boards, a platter for storing data and a write head which actually transfers electronic data to your platter for later use.
How does a hard drive work? The hard drive in your personal computer or business computer functions much like a cd player! To put it simply a hard drive contains a “platter” or disc which stores electronic data ( a series of 1′s and 0′s along with a few other characters) written in partitions (picture a pie already cut into slices, each slice would be a partition) and saved making data such as documents, applications and computer programs accessable to users.
Secure Data Destruction should involve two aspects, a secure, thorough data destruciton process and responsible disposal of the hard ware. Protecting your personal or business data is extremely important and should never be overlooked. Ensuring data security is easier than you think, yet some commonly used data destruction or “hard drive destruction” practices are comically uneffective and harmful to your local environment!
Searching the internet for “hard drive destruction” or “how to destroy a hard drive” will often land you on a youtube video of some fellow with a hammer attempting to smash his home computer’s hard drive. While this approach may serve as a stress reliever and a good 2 minutes of online entertainment, there are much more safe and effective ways to securely and responsibly dispose of an old or sensitive hard drive.
Destroying your hard drive data and disposing of the left over hard ware should be single process. Simply throwing your self destroyed hard drive in the house hold rubbish contributes to the growing amount of electronic waste (ewaste) found in landfills. As our world population continues to become ever more dependent on electronics the amount of electronic waste produced is expected to grow world wide by 17 percent in the next five years.
By contacting a compliant electronics recycling company, such as Jamie’s Computers you can assure data security and responsible recycling of your hazardous ewaste.
How to really destroy hard drive data? This question leads to the common misconception that the data on your hard drive can be “destroyed.” The only way to thoroughly and compliantly ”destroy” your data is through an electronic process, often refered to as “ghosting” or “whiping,” simply formating your hard drive DOES NOT render your personal or business data unobtainable!
The term “electronic data destruction,” actually refers to a process of re-writing a random series of 1′s, 0′s and a few other characters over the current data stored on your hard drive platter. At Jamie’s Computers all hard-drives received are wiped using Blancco software which guarantees the unrecoverable removal of 100% of data. This service is free of charge. Data destruction offers advantages over physical destruction as it allows a device that’s safe for second life, applications such as donations, redeployment or even sale.
Blancco is widely accepted as the industry-leading data destruction software. It was the first software to receive CESG-certification to InfoSec 5 standard and meets all recognised international data destruction standards, including those set by the UK’s Communications Electronics Security Group (CESG) and the US Department of Defence.
Remember when it comes to secure data destruction and electronics recycling, contact a certified electronics recycling service. Some electronics recycling services will even offer a certificate of secure data destruction! Secure your data and Recycle Responsibly!
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