Question 1

What is Data Destruction Software?

Accepted Answer

Data destruction software completely deletes all data on hard drives to ensure that sensitive data will not be recovered by unauthorized personnel. When users delete data stored on retired hard drives, the hard drive can still be retrieved by hackers. Since most operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Apple macOS do not securely erase data, hackers can recover the storage devices and access financial information, client details, and other sensitive materials for blackmail or corporate espionage purposes. This exposes businesses to serious financial losses and legal troubles. This is why many businesses are required by regulations to have a data sanitization process to properly destroy their data.  
 For hard drives that contain extremely sensitive information, companies use physical data destruction methods such as melting and shredding on-site. Physical data erasure can shred flash drives, solid-state drives (SSD), USB drives, and other hard disks from desktops, laptops, or servers. This is a secure data erasure method to prevent personal data from being accessible by destroying the entire drive. However, the company will need to buy hard drive destruction equipment such as a hard drive shredder. This will render the device unusable. For most companies, physical data destruction is costly and unnecessary. Instead, they can use data destruction software, which can be used in multiple locations and is affordable. This is also sometimes referred to as data eraser software or data erasure software. This type of software can erase, wipe, and shred files and systems. It can also be used for separate partitioned drives instead of the whole drive. Once the drive erasure is complete, others can’t use data recovery methods to regain access to the file system since the drive will be filled with random data or return the hard drive into a bootable drive.  
 Since data destruction or data wiping falls under the last step of the data lifecycle management (DLM) process, data destruction should be planned ahead of time as part of the whole process. And without a good DLM, data can be leaked in earlier steps before they are erased. Companies should evaluate their DLM process and data protection process before they buy data destruction software. For example, there is some freeware to wipe data but they might not fit the overall process or the industry standards.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Data Destruction Software?

Accepted Answer

The following are some core features within data destruction software that can help users delete their data completely and comply with data regulations: 
 Data wiping: The software can destroy the data by overwriting (replace data with random 1s and 0s), block erase (wipe the whole logical block), or cryptographic erase (destroy built-in data encryption). Since there are many different types of SSD and hard disk drive (HDD), the software also needs to have different data destruction technology depending on the hard drive type. Regardless of the wiping method and technology, the old data should not be recoverable after the wipe.  
 Certified compliance: Each industry and region have different laws and standards for erasing the data. The software should have different data wiping configurations for different laws, thus making each wipe certified for compliance.  
 Reports for auditing: Electronic reports should be automatically generated for different regulations based on the compliance criteria (device types, wiping methods, validation, and others). Manual documentation is prone to human error, hard to scale, and difficult to customize. The online report provides proof and validations that the wipe process fits the regulation standards and is available for auditing in the future.  
 Integration: Many data destruction software is a part of or integrate with data governance software or IT asset management software. Data governance software manages all the DLM processes which include data destruction. It is a one-stop solution for companies that need to automate all of the data management processes. IT asset management tracks IT hardware inventory. Once the hard drive is wiped, data destruction software can automatically update the IT hardware inventory, which saves time from manual input.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Data Destruction Software?

Accepted Answer

Information security: Sensitive data, file, and file structures on any operating system won’t fall into the wrong hands when it is completely destroyed. The data is beyond recovery even with advanced recovery software. 
 Cost saving: Data destruction software only costs a fraction of physical destruction tools and services. The software can be remotely managed without the limit of distance. It can also operate hundreds of devices at the same time.  
 Environmentally friendly: Physically destroyed software cannot be used again, which contributes to electronic waste. Data destruction software supports zero-landfill movement because the wiped drive is reusable and recyclable.

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