Media can be found in scanners, copiers, printers, workstations, network components, and mobile devices! If you need replace or get rid of this equipment it’s important to remove media so it can’t be retrieved or reconstructed. It’s also important to know exactly which information system media should be sanitized before you get rid of the device or reuse the device.
So you know what media should be sanitized, which devices the media is on, and if you’re reusing the device or destroying the device. Now you need to come up with a method for removing the media from the device so no one else can access it. Some techniques include clearing, purging, cryptographic erase, and with something like hard drives, destruction.
There are a few avenues you can take for destroying your hard drives:
- Companies that offer media disposal services
- Your organization pays a fee for the company to destroy the hard drives and will then present the organization with a certificate of destruction
- This method is beneficial when there is a large amount of drives to destroy
- Methods that can be done in-house that are also effective
- Crushing the drives
- Using a tool to create holes in the drives
No matter which methods you choose it should be documented and signed off on. During the destruction process it should be noted what is being destroyed, who destroyed it, and when.
