Best Practices: Degauss Before you Destroy

• Physical destruction of hard drives alone leaves data behind (ie. shredding, crushing, piercing, bending)
• HD-2XTSS Degausser completely eliminates all data on the disc platters
• After degaussing, physical destruction from the PD-5 gives visual confirmation that the hard drive has been securely processed and is ready to leave the controlled environment for disposal or shredding

Note:  Solid-state media cannot be degaussed.  Physical destruction of the media with the SSD-1 solid-state destroyer is recommended prior to the media leaving its secure environment.

Degauss vs. Overwrite

Overwriting is a method where a random pattern of usually "1" and "0" is written to every part of the drive, frequently three times, to obliterate the underlying data.  The advantage of this method is the drive can be re-used.  The disadvantages are:  it takes a skilled operator to ensure the overwriting is done correctly; non-functioning sectors of the hard drive cannot be overwritten allowing data to remain on the drive; it takes a considerable amount of time-hours, and therefore electricity; and it is not regarded as failsafe, or permissible for the highest data security standards such as the NSA, CIA, or DoD. 

Degaussing is the process of exposing the media to a strong magnetic field of sufficient strength to magnetically destroy the data.  The advantages of degaussing are:  a skilled operator is not required to operate a degausser; the magnetic field destroys the all data on the drive in approximately 1/10 of a second regardless of whether the drive is functioning or non-functioning; and degaussing is recognized by the NSA and DoD as an appropriate method of secure data destruction.  The disadvantage of degaussing is the hard drive cannot be re-used.

After degaussing, the data on a degaussed hard drive simply no longer exists.

Secure and Compliant

The SPACESAVER IRONCLAD will help you meet government and industry standards requiring complete destruction of sensitive data prior to disposal, including:

• California Senate Bill 1386
• DoD (Emergency Destruction and up to Secret Classification)
• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act)
• HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act)
• IRS 1075
• NIST SP 800-88r1
• PCI DSS 3.2 (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
• PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

International Standards

Independently tested and certified to meet CE standards for safety and compatibility worldwide.