Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Effective Methods Of Data Destruction Austin

By Kari Ratliff


It reaches a point where a company decides that the information it has is no longer necessary. For less sensitive information, disposal is quite easy. However, when it comes to sensitive material that a company does not want to be seen by unwanted eyes, it is very important that such information is permanently removed from their system. For effective data destruction Austin residents must seek secure methods of disposal, so that information to be destroyed is irretrievably gone.

Generally, the method of destroying records is determined by the media in which such record is stored. Different methods exist for different media. Examples of media are paper, optical, magnetic among other media.

When the information to be destroyed is contained in paper format, this should be easily gotten rid of by shredding. Therefore, it is important for all offices to be in possession of a shredder, because they are normally affordable. If not, then they should at least have access to shredding services.

When it comes to electronic media, the most suitable method really depends on the type of format in which a given information is stored. There are basically two types of media here and they are magnetic and optical media. They could all be containing information in the same form, which is electronic, but disposal methods are totally different.

Many people are likely to delete files from these media and erroneously believe that they have destroyed the information. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Deleting merely changes the reference data about the location of a given file but the information remains just as before.

Some people would go ahead and erase the deleted information from the recycle bin. This only goes as far as removing the pointers to sectors that were erased. However, the deleted information is still in the location where it was. To effectively remove such information, you will need to overwrite it, which simply means filling the space that is unallocated with a pattern of numbers, usually zeroes and ones.

For optical media like CD-RW, or common DVD-RW, it would require an overwrite method to have the information completely destroyed. However, most of these media are write once only, and are not possible to be overwritten. And since they are optical in nature and not magnetic, they can also not be degaussed. Therefore, the only viable option would be to have the media physically destroyed.

The method has one big disadvantage, which is that the media is destroyed and cannot be used again. However, it is better to lose your media than have sensitive information in wrong hands. When tearing down the CD or DVD, avoid burning them as this leads to emission of harmful substances. Breaking the CD or DVD can also be injurious to you or people nearby, because of the flying pieces of the media.

Use the method of physical attack to effectively destroy the media. Here, the DVD or the CD with information to be destroyed is cut with scissors. For proper data destruction Austin businesses should buy shredders that can also shred CDs and DVDS.




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