Cool, but encryption is a kindler and gentler way to retire disk drives
Blocks and Files highlighted this very physical solution to a data management problem: how to be sure sensitive data on retired disk drives never again sees the light of day. It’s a do-it-yourself version of industrial disk crushers.
Verity’s quite excited about the Hard Drive Destroyer, and I know it fills a desperate need. But it’s not very resource-efficient nor environmentally friendly. That’s a perfectly good drive! Can’t someone else use it?
The renewable alternative: self-encrypting hard drives like the Momentus FDE and BlackArmor. When it’s time to retire, throw away the AES-grade encryption key, and Poof! - what was once written will never be seen again. Certifiably so.
Momentus FDE is a notebook drive. The first enterprise FDE drive will be the Seagate Cheetah 15K . Stay tuned.
Who’s destroying drives out there? Anyone willing to admit they’re ignoring this problem and reusing drives?
1 response so far ↓
JMAC // December 9, 2008 at 5:18 pm |
The only safe way is degaussing. Destroying is not nearly as effective as degaussing but it is way better that overwriting or encrypting. Overwrites and encryption are like a three tumbler lock on a cash register. The best way to play is remove the cash. Hard drive destroying is very environmentally friendly. Have you ever seen a heavy metal mine? Re-using the raw materials is much better.