ITAMG regularly provides IT disposal and data destruction services to our clients with offices and data centers in New York City. Recently we have had a lot of new clients ask us how it’s even possible for us to provide onsite hard drive shredding services in the chaotic New York environment. This post provides a quick explanation of how we manage obstacles and securely destroy electronic media in one of America’s most bustling cities.

Parking in New York City can be a nightmare. The industrial shredding equipment used to shred hard drives weighs thousands of pounds and is mounted on a large box truck (similar to paper shredding trucks you may be more familiar with). Most loading docks in New York City are extremely busy and located indoors, so idling and shredding drives at a dock is not an option due to congestion as well as health and safety concerns.

In order to get the work done curbside our crew will first scan and capture the serial numbers of the drives and then place the media into a locked container while still inside the client’s space. They then transport the locked containers, which are on wheels, down to the mobile shredding truck.

When there are no available parking spaces in the area we may be required to park several blocks from the client’s location. Although the client may be forced to get some unexpected exercise by taking a walk to the truck, he or she is able to follow the media at all times, and no media is left unattended.

To combat parking restrictions we always staff at least three crew members in New York City. All hard drive shredding projects in New York are staffed with a driver and a minimum of two technicians. With this strategy the truck can remain in a standing zone nearby while the other two crew members audit and prepare the drives for destruction.

When the technicians are done processing and auditing the drives the truck is called in to collect the container and the drives are destroyed at the nearest possible location. This staffing practice accounts for a potential emergency or required break and allows for a crew member to always remain available to guard the media prior to its destruction.   

Everything, especially time, in New York is expensive. In order to reduce service costs our shredding trucks are also equipped to collect electronic waste and surplus computer equipment that is being liquidated.  In addition to the shredded media remains there is space to remove upwards of three hundred desktops at a single service.

We are able to reduce shipping and logistics costs for projects that require both on-site media destruction and IT asset disposal services by performing both services at the same time.      

ITAMG has been working in New York City with our own crews since 1999. If you are already a New York hard drive shredding client please reach out to your account manager and let us know how we are doing.      

Interested in Data Destruction Best Practices?  Download our quick guide to NIST 800-88 Guidelines for Media Sanitzation below.

Since 1999 our primary business at IT Asset Management Group has been focused on developing and implementing the process, controls, and oversights necessary to run a compliant, secure, and economically viable IT asset disposition program.  We are now drawing upon our unique experience and capabilities to provide consulting, program management, and project management services for data destruction, environmental, asset management, and return management initiatives. 

ITAMG’s disposition programs are designed to bridge the gap and achieve the goals of various stakeholders including Finance, IT, Facilities, and Procurement departments.   

A broad approach to an asset disposal program is as follows:

• Develop and furnish the initial operational, financial and technical assessments relating to an asset disposition program.
• Recommend alternative operational processes and organizational solutions.
• Provide budgetary cost and income estimates for the alternative approaches
• Develop a Statement of Work for the program or project.
• Assist with evaluation, selection and contracting, including the execution of Service Level Agreements.
• Provide implementation and acceptance testing project management.
• Include on-going program support as defined by client. Including delivery management, SLA monitoring and documentation of the financial returns.
• Ensure Quality Control and Risk Management.

ITAMG’s asset disposal program management services are best suited for the Fortune 500, large government agencies, IT value added resellers, and other institutions with a significant IT hardware portfolio that requires the liquidation of at least one million dollars of surplus IT equipment in a single fiscal year. 

However, we do engage smaller mid-market clients to consult on and improve IT asset disposal and data destruction practices as well as to provide our direct IT asset recovery and hard drive shredding services.    

Storage devices and electronic media are not the only devices that require erasure and data destruction service levels in order to eliminate risks of causing a breach from an equipment disposition. Networking devices, routers, and switches hold sensitive information that in the wrong hands can be used to find entry to or otherwise compromise a network’s security.

The good news is that the major manufacturers have built in acceptable erasure methods into various networking devices and the process is easy to navigate.

At IT Asset Management Group we utilize the best methods of clearing a device depending on the manufacturer’s instructions and tools available. If a device cannot be reset to factory default, configuration cleared, NVRAM erased, VLAN cleared or any other information fails to erase with 100% certainty the device is quarantined and then physically destroyed.

The exact method of erasing networking devices will be specific to the manufacturer and model of the hardware but the following is broad overview of the process.Methods for Networking Device Erasure 

1. Switches - Clear all configuration files including startup and running configuration files. Erase the NVRAM file system and removal of all files. Reload the switch to factory default. Clear all VLAN information created on switch. Confirm device has been cleared.
2. Routers - Reset password and device to factory default.   Using Register Configuration write erase and set device back to factory default. Confirm device has been cleared.  

A sample of the type of manufacturer provided instructions used by ITAMG can be found below.

Common Switch: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-2900-xl-series-switches/24328-156.html

Common Router: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/ios-nx-os-software/ios-software-releases-123-mainline/46509-factory-default.html

Networking Device Destruction

Any device that cannot be reset and confirmed to no longer contain any user created configurations or data should be physically dismantled, shredded, and recycled for commodity material in accordance with all local, state, and federal laws. ITAMG’s data destruction services are developed in accordance with the DoD 5220.22-M standards and NIST 800-88 Guidelines for Media Sanitization.

Looking for more information on running a secure data destruction program? 

Attackers are targeting easier to access confidential information housed on company hard drives that are improperly disposed of.  One must have data destruction policies and procedures in place to ensure a data breach doesn’t occur. In the Guidelines for Media Sanitization (NIST Special Publication 800-88 Rev 1) best practices from the National Institute of Standards and Technology are clearly provided.

In this document three forms of compliant sanitization are defined: clear, purge, and destroy.

• Clear: Overwriting storage space with non-sensitive data is one way to sanitize media. This method is not effective for media that is damaged or not rewriteable. The media type and size may also influence whether overwriting is a suitable sanitization method [SP 800-36].
• Purge: Acceptable forms of purging include degaussing and executing the firmware Secure Erase command (for ATA drives only).  In degaussing a magnetic field is used to sanitize media. Degaussing is effective when working with damaged media, purging media with exceptionally large storage capacities, or for purging diskettes [SP 800-36].
• Destroy:  Sanitization methods used to completely destroy media include Disintegration, Pulverization, Melting, and Incineration.  Destruction methods are typically outsourced to an organization capable of performing these tasks safely and effectively.  Pulverization is commonly referred to as Hard Drive Shredding in the IT asset disposal industry.  

 The NIST 800-88 document provides the below Media Sanitization Decision Matrix containing media-specific lists regarding the options of clear, purge, and destroy.  

Media that contains proprietary, confidential material, or is otherwise deemed to be a high risk must be given priority and the strictest controls and destruction methods should be employed.

Learn More And Download the 5 Most Important Tips from NIST 800-88

ITAMG handles media sanitization in accordance with the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) Special Publication Series 800-88. We can work with you to implement the most appropriate methods of disposal for your media and establish your secure and audit ready data destruction programs.

When purchasing and utilizing solid state drives (SSD) end-of-life management should be seriously considered.  Data sanitization prior to disposition or re-deployment for a SSD differs from a traditional hard disk drive (HDD). SSDs store, write, and re-write data differently than spinning hard disk drives, and require a more stringent approach to achieve secure data erasure.

In a PC Magazine article SSD vs. HDD: What's the Difference? more in depth details are given for the differences between spinning HDD and the interconnected flash memory chip data storage technology of the SDD.

A software solution that is typically used to over-write data on HDDs, even with multiple passes, may not be a proper data destruction solution for SSD.  Some common software erasure tools may not consistently access all storage areas on the SSD, and as a result blocks of data can be left behind after binary wiping solutions are utilized.

The various manufacturers of SSDs offer their own solutions for SSD erasure. These built in processes are important to understand before purchasing SSD as they will need to be performed on each drive at time of disposition or reuse.  All secure SSD erasure procedures should be followed up with manual confirmation of success and regular random quality assurance from upper management, as well as physical destruction procedure where failure to wipe or security policy otherwise dictates.

Deguassing solid state drives is not a secure option as SSDs do not use magnetic storage.  

It is advisable to have a good understanding on the process of each secure erase instructions from the various OEM utilities:    

Seagate: http://www.seagate.com/files/www-content/product-content/_cross-product/en-us/docs/how-to-ise-your-drive-tp-644-1-1211-us.pdf

Kingston:  http://www.kingston.com/us/community/articledetail?ArticleId=10 

Samsung SSD Magician Manual (Secure Erase): http://www.xander.com.hk/product/product_manual/prod_manual_500.pdf

Intel: http://www.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-034294.htm

Corsair: http://www.corsair.com/applicationnote/secure-erase

Crucial: http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD-Knowledge/SSDs-and-Secure-Erase/ta-p/112580

Feel free to post other instructions for major SSD manufacturers and ITAMG will continue to update this list.