InfoSec and Data Destruction

There were a lot of interesting companies and products at InfoSec this year. However, one I was particularly fascinated to see was called Secure I.T. Disposals Limited. They offer a number of services including on-site disk destruction. While a number of companies offer shredding of disks, CDs and tapes, SITD will bring their shredder on-site and grind disks there-and-then. Why is this of interest?

Data loss is not just about the ‘electronic’ copies of information it also covers the physical media as well. Printed reports that haven’t been shredded and are found in skips, or at the side of the road have made the news every year for the last decade or so. This is making people revisit their paper shredding policy - looking at the need to shred particularly sensitive documents on site. This on-site destruction should also be considered for disks, (backup) tapes and CD ROMs which are no longer required. Of course this isn’t for every piece of information, just the really sensitive things - you don’t want your data to disappear on the way to the recycling plant. It is good to see companies, such as SIDL offering such a service.

I have used a picture of a ’shredded’ disk drive in my talks for a while, and my thanks to Mark at SIDL for a small perspex box containing a shredded disk - I’m a great fan of props!
Ground up disk Ground up CD ROM

April 29, 2008 | Filed Under data-loss 

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