Midwest Computer Forensic Lab

Digitial Data Forensic Laboratory

Digital Data Distruction

The number of computer systems being retired is growing into the hundreds of millions and the need to protect the sensitive data on those systems is also growing dramatically. Given the fact that computers are repositories for financial records, medical records, legal documents, and other confidential information, the importance of destroying hard drive data when systems are retired, cannot be overstated.

Government regulations on hard drive data destruction and an increasing amount of privacy-related issues have created new challenges for businesses. With computers being replaced each year, the need for a strategy to deal with data security is becoming more and more important. Failing to properly destroy discarded business, patient, customer, credit or other sensitive information could create legal nightmares. New regulations require businesses to have a policy in place and it must include sensitive data retirement in order to be compliant with recent acts, including:

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Gram-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act)
Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The National Association of Information Destruction (NAID) recommends that information destruction be outsourced to a professional firm. Outsourcing allows firms and their staff to concentrate on their core competencies. The Midwest Computer Forensic Lab provides an audit and certificate of data destruction for your records. We can even establish a secure chain of custody of items from your facility to ours.

Redundant erasure is highly recommended to help ensure total erasure. The Midwest Computer Forensic Lab will utilize a three-pass wipe, which complies with the Department of Defense standard 5220.22M. Midwest Computer Forensic Lab can help you meet the electronic media requirements - by providing a reputable professional to sanitize your drives and document the drive identity, date, time, and method of "wiping".

The Midwest Computer Forensic Lab uses a variety of diagnostic tools to visually inspect every single hard drive processed and manually verify that data wiping tools have successfully eradicated all data.

The cost and time associated with erasing data leads many businesses to utilize external resources for data security solutions. It is best to rely on the expertise and resources of professionals with a demonstrated core competency in data security. It takes special expertise in hard drive structures, file types, and wiping technologies to reliably wipe a drive. Manual verification by a skilled technician from the Midwest Computer Forensic Lab, is the only way to be sure data has been completely erased.

For further information, or if you would like to meet and discuss your plans for handling your business digital media, contact me by phone at (319) 540-2707 or email at MidwestCFL@Gmail.com.

Greg Koenighain, EnCE,CFCE

Lab Director
Midwest Computer Forensic Lab