Data Destruction Services
Paramount to Any IT Security Policy
You might think that you deleted a file “permanently” by clearing the Recycle Bin; or you may assume that because your hard drive is no longer working, the data is lost forever and cannot be recovered. In both of these cases, it may surprise you to know that the data can still be recovered. If you’re not careful, anyone with malicious intent can find a way to recover confidential data that you thought was ‘gone for good’ and use it against you.
A little bit of the Geeky Stuff
Hard disk drives record and store their data on disk drive tracks, which are circular sections on the magnetic surface of the disk inside the hard drive, where data is recorded to and read from. Tracks are divided into sectors, which store a certain amount of user-accessible data in each. Files on sectors have “pointers” that tell the operating system which sectors the first and last file fragments of a file are on; as some fragments can take up more than one sector, depending on the file’s size. When a file is deleted, the pointers are removed and the sectors the file took up are marked as available; however, the file’s contents are not actually erased. Until the residual data in those “free” sectors is overwritten, the file can be recovered by a file recovery program. The reason only the pointers are deleted is because actually erasing the file’s contents takes longer, especially if it’s 1GB or greater in size. Even attempting to overwrite the file’s data completely can take a long time if it’s done manually; and as a result, a small part of the original data can be recovered.
If your old systems contained customer information, client files, or other sensitive data; you could have a disaster on your hands, should the wrong person gain access to this information. Health care information, for example, is one of the most valued by hackers. (See infoworld.com article here)
We destroy data and help protect your identity by providing comprehensive data destruction services. We provide you with the peace of mind that can only come from knowing that the old information on those old devices cannot be recovered, and is indeed gone for good!