Data Security White Paper
Data Disposal
We all practice elements of data security. At home, for example, we make sure that deeds and insurance documents are kept safely so that they are available when we need them. Your company information deserves to be treated in the same way. In business, having the right information at the right time can make the difference between profit and loss, success and failure. Data Security will help you control and secure information from inadvertent or malicious changes and deletions or unauthorized disclosure. There are three aspects of data security:
Confidentiality: Protecting information from unauthorised disclosure, perhaps to a competitor, to the press, or through improper disposal techniques. Integrity: Protecting information from unauthorised modification, and ensuring that information, such as a price list, can be relied upon and is accurate and complete. Availability: Ensuring information is available when you need it. Data can be held in many different areas, some of these are:
Network Servers
Personal Computers and Workstations
Laptop and Handheld PCs
Removable Storage Media (Floppy Disks, CD-ROMS, Zip Disks, etc.)
Data Backup Media (Tapes and Optical Disks)
Recommended Products for secure deletion:
Darik's Boot and Nuke (commonly known as DBAN) is an open source project hosted on Sourceforge. The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is no longer recoverable, by overwriting the data with random numbers generated by Mersenne twister (a PRNG). The Gutmann method is included with DBAN.
DBAN can be booted from a floppy disk, CD, or USB flash drive and it is based on Linux. It supports IDE, SCSI and SATA hard drives.
Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.
DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, preventing identity theft prior to selling or donating a used computer, and ensuring that a reused disk is completely free of malware. DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.
The development and support of the DBAN software project is funded in part by GEEP International, a consumer electronics recycling company in North America.
Simple File Shredder
Simple File Shredder is a utility that securely deletes your files so they can't be restored using recovery software.
When you delete a file using the conventional Windows delete method, the file is not actually destroyed. Windows simply acknowledges the file is no longer needed and considers it free space. The deleted file will exist in a recoverable state until it's over-written with other data.
When you use Simple File Shredder to shred a file, the file is over-written with with random bytes before it's deleted. If the file was ever restored using recovery software, it would be worthless. Simple File Shredder v3 provides a fully customizable System Shredder. Using the System Shredder, you can easily group browser cache, cookie, and history files to be located and shredded.