Following litigation, it is common practice to certify the shredding of all paper that relates to a case, but what are the proper procedures when disposing of electronically stored information? What if hard drives or storage systems are to be recycled for use in other cases? To ensure that data is completely removed from storage mediums and ensure that trade secrets and other confidential information are not recoverable, it must be forensically purged or the physical media destroyed. Upon conclusion of any purging and destruction services, we provide a complete certificate of destruction along with a log documenting all drives destroyed.
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Purging refers specifically to removal of sensitive information from re-writeable storage mediums so that information can not be re-constructed in any way, allowing it to be safely recycled. Generally this is done by overwriting the media through several passes, writing anything from ones and zeros, to random bit patterns. Formatting a drive simply erases its file table, leaving data on the physical platter, easily recoverable for a forensic expert. Our standards are in accordance with the strictest methods recommended in the NISPOM (for non top secret information). Destruction refers to the permanent mutilation of storage mediums so that data can neither be recovered, nor reused. The preferred method of destruction generally depends on the type of media, however the most secure method of disposal would involve purging all data before performing any permanent destruction. Optical media such as CD’s and DVD’s are typically shredded in a fashion similar to paper to remove any possibility of re-construction. At client request, we can also certify the destruction via smelting or incineration to provide maximum protection from recovery.
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