How to Destroy a Hard Drive

eBay is so well known that it almost rivals Coca-Cola as an internationally recognized brand name. That’s why the world was in shock when, in May 2014, eBay’s CEO John Donahue admitted that the names, dates of birth, addresses, and even encrypted passwords of every single one of its then 145 million users had been leaked. As it turns out, the high scale breach occurred when hackers used the login details of three eBay corporate employees, giving them unfettered access to eBay’s database of users for 229 days. The breach would have been infinitely worse had credit card details and other financial information been compromised as well, however, these were stored in a separate database. Today we are discussing how to destroy a hard drive, but we open with the 2014 eBay breach as a timely reminder that data breaches can occur to any business or organization, no matter its size.

Destroying a hard drive is absolutely essential for businesses wanting to protect both themselves and their clients. When you opt to destroy a hard drive, you are ensuring all data left on the hard drive is completely inaccessible. Simply deleting data from a hard drive is ineffective as it can be relatively easy to restore lost data with the right software and know-how.

If someone with malicious intent is looking for discarded or recycled hard drives, you can be sure they will know how to restore everything back onto the hard drive. This means someone could get all kinds of sensitive information about your business, including confidential data about your clients as well, potentially opening up a legal minefield. There are many ways you could attempt to destroy data on hard drive, but the safest way would be to utilize a professional. Read on to find out how to destroy a hard drive.

What Is Sanitized Data Image - Agr

What is Sanitized Data?

When you’re wondering how to destroy a hard drive, data sanitization is one available option. Data sanitization is the process of purposely and permanently removing all data stored onto a hard drive. Once a hard drive has been sanitized, none of the data will be recoverable, even by the most advanced tools. Before you discard a hard drive, ensure that all the data has been sanitized, effectively guaranteeing that nobody will ever be able to access any information stored on a hard drive. Deleting data from a hard drive will not sanitize it, and it will still be accessible to anyone who ends up with the hard drive. The safest way to sanitize data would be to go straight to a professional.

How to Destroy A Hard Drive by Using A Hard Drive Degausser

A hard drive degausser will effectively destroy all data left on a hard drive and will render the hard drive unusable. When a hard drive has been degaussed, nobody will ever be able to access the hard drive. Degaussing is done by exposing the hard drive to a magnetic field that is stronger than the hard drive. In simple terms, an industrial-strength magnet will completely destroy the data. This is the most efficient way to destroy a hard drive, and all businesses should do this when discarding or recycling old hard drives. Businesses looking to protect themselves and their clients can choose hard drive degaussing as an effective method of how to destroy a hard drive.

Destroy A Hard Drive With Hard Drive Shredding Image - Agr

How to Destroy A Hard Drive with Hard Drive Shredding

Once a hard drive has been degaussed, you should opt for it to be shredded as well. Hard drive shredding is how to destroy a hard drive by physically destroying a hard drive to a point where it can’t be recovered. To get an idea of what this involves, imagine wood going through a wood chipper.

Some people choose to destroy a hard drive themselves, but this isn’t as secure as it should be. Also, attempting to a shred a hard drive on your own can be dangerous as some of the particles may be toxic. Utilizing a professional hard drive shredding service like that offered by All Green Recycling is the best way to go. As industry professionals, we use highly powerful hard drive shredders which shred hard drives into the smallest possible fragments. After all – the smaller the shredded fragment, the less chance there is that the hard drive can be reconstructed.

To make the process easier, at All Green Recycling we offer on-site hard drive shredding. Rather than taking your unwanted hard drives to one of our secure purpose-built recycling centers, when you choose on-site hard drive shredding, we come to you. On-site shredding adds a layer of security for those people who prefer to watch the shredding process take place, or for businesses whose policies do not allow equipment to leave the premises. Combined with degaussing, hard drive shredding is a highly secure way to ensure data sanitization.

Anything would be better than suffering a data breach like eBay’s. To find out how All Green Recycling can help, contact us today.

 

References

The 17 biggest data breaches of the 21st century

Hard drive recycling do’s and don’ts

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