Which? Decommision your old computer. But which way?
- By Tony Pullon
- Published 8/01/2009
Tony Pullon
Managing Director Net-Ctrl Limited
For more information please contact sales@net-ctrl.com or
telephone sales on 01473 281 211.
In a recent Which? Computing Magazine article they reported that data theft from decommissioned PC's was on the up and from 8 machines they purchased from ebay they recovered circa 22,000 records. Records could easily include banking data, accompanying cookies, ebay and other online account information, letters to utility companies etc etc. All of which could be used by the criminally minded to steal from us or our companies.
Interestingly Which? advocate taking a hammer to the hard drive to ensure that the data really, really can't be accessed after you've finsihed with it BUT this rather assumes that it is a home PC not a corporate machine, where the decommissioning becomes a little more tricky. I can't imagine getting an employee to dismember several hundred machines, most of which will have to be stored before being hammered where presumably they could be removed without permission. Send them off site and the problem is now merely elsewhere!
There is we think a better way.
This has been a well known problem for public and private organisations for some time. Unlike home computer users they often have mobile computer users too who periodically loose their computers on trains, car seats, hotel rooms... you name it.
Within the confines of a work space too some computers are prone to be stolen and with this in mind a number of companies produced hard disc encryption software that meant that without the user name and password the data on the hard drive was nothing more than random, unintelligible non-sense (rather like this blog).
This means that when the PC or laptop is decommissioned you can dump or sell the unit without the need of taking a hammer or high powered magnet to the hard drive. We think our solution is greener, safer and easier to manage.
If you'd like to know more about GuardianEdge and how Net-Ctrl can help with your end point security, please contact us today.
Interestingly Which? advocate taking a hammer to the hard drive to ensure that the data really, really can't be accessed after you've finsihed with it BUT this rather assumes that it is a home PC not a corporate machine, where the decommissioning becomes a little more tricky. I can't imagine getting an employee to dismember several hundred machines, most of which will have to be stored before being hammered where presumably they could be removed without permission. Send them off site and the problem is now merely elsewhere!
There is we think a better way.
This has been a well known problem for public and private organisations for some time. Unlike home computer users they often have mobile computer users too who periodically loose their computers on trains, car seats, hotel rooms... you name it.
Within the confines of a work space too some computers are prone to be stolen and with this in mind a number of companies produced hard disc encryption software that meant that without the user name and password the data on the hard drive was nothing more than random, unintelligible non-sense (rather like this blog).
This means that when the PC or laptop is decommissioned you can dump or sell the unit without the need of taking a hammer or high powered magnet to the hard drive. We think our solution is greener, safer and easier to manage.
If you'd like to know more about GuardianEdge and how Net-Ctrl can help with your end point security, please contact us today.
