Our devices are constantly getting more and more sophisticated. Maybe that’s why people are constantly looking for new data destruction methods or new hacks they can use for hard drive destruction: we’re just used to there always being something new. Social media has also made it both easy and entertaining to share ideas about DIY hard drive destruction.
So it’s no wonder that many people are tempted to burn, break or drill holes in their drives instead of having them shredded by a data destruction service. DIY destruction methods might even work in some cases. Or, they can backfire. For companies that have a lot of highly sensitive data on their drives, that’s a big and potentially very expensive risk to take. Let’s look at some specific ways that bypassing professional data destruction services can go wrong for businesses like yours.
Real-Life Examples of How DIY Destruction Can Fail
- Burning or submerging a hard drive in water won’t necessarily destroy any of its data. That’s the conclusion suggested by an interesting piece of research that was published in 2021 in Forensic Science International. Researchers from a university in Poland wanted to study the effects of fire damage on hard drives, using 14 drives recovered from a fire that had occurred at a graphic design company. It was a severe fire that took hours to put out, during which time the drives were subjected to both intense heat and fire suppression solutions including water. The building also collapsed during the fire, so the drives had fallen from the second floor office into the first floor and presumably were buried under more debris.During the data recovery process, the drives were carefully disassembled, cleaned and dried. Despite the drives having spent four-plus hours in an active fire, being drenched with water and undergoing other physical damage, the researchers were still able to recover data from them.
- Here’s a story to remember if you’re ever tempted to cut corners instead of working with a reputable data destruction service. In 2022, the SEC brought charges against Morgan Stanley Smith Barney because the company had exposed the personal identifying information of 15 million customers. They had entrusted thousands of obsolete electronics to a moving company for decommissioning, instead of a reputable data destruction company. The moving company then resold those devices online, with MSSB’s private data still saved on those drives. It was MSSB’s duty to ensure its data was protected, so the SEC held them responsible for the actions of the people who ended up with their old drives.
- Speaking of employer responsibility: there’s a safety factor that must be considered if you’re going to attempt DIY hard drive destruction. Unless you’re a manufacturing company or otherwise have employees who know how to work with tools, it’s entirely possible for someone to get hurt while using physical destruction methods on old hard drives. There are plenty of videos on social media (here’s just one example) of people drilling hard drives, and it’s easy to see how close some of them come to getting cut by shards of broken platters or losing control of their drills. (Plus, drilling through the case of a hard drive can be hard on your tools; this video shows just how much damage you might do to your drill before you even reach the platters that store your data.)
- Drilling isn’t always foolproof, as demonstrated by this YouTube video from a guy who likes to take apart old hard drives. He asked someone he knew who worked in IT for some obsolete drives, and the IT person gave him a stack of drives that had been drilled through. Presumably, the company believed that its data was inaccessible after those holes were drilled, and so the drives were given away. But as the YouTuber started taking them apart, he discovered that multiple drives had drill holes that had totally missed hitting the platters—aka, the places where data is actually stored. The company had unknowingly allowed a total stranger to access its data.
Professional Hard Drive Destruction: How Things Go Right
We know what can go wrong when you attempt DIY destruction, but what happens when you have your drives shredded by a data destruction company? We can’t speak for everyone, but here’s a look at the hard drive shredding process we use at Northeast Data Destruction.
- Once we take possession of your hard drives, they’re kept 100% secure until destruction. If we pick them up from your location, they’re transported in locked and GPS-enabled trucks to our NAID AAA-certified facility.
- The serial numbers of all the drives that will be shredded are recorded for the client’s records.
- Hard drives are disassembled to remove any valuable recyclable components, such as circuit board components that contain precious metals.
- The remaining parts of the hard drives, including the data-storing platters, are fed into a commercial shredder that rips them into confetti-like pieces. The shreds of hundreds of hard drives end up mixed together. (See our hard drive shredder in action here!)
- The shredded byproducts are sorted so metal and other recyclable components can be recovered by our sister company, Miller Recycling.
- The client is sent their Certificate of Destruction, including the list of destroyed drives. Or, they can take it with them if they elected to view the shredding process in person.
Don’t Take a Chance With Risky Hard Drive Destruction Methods
Too many things can go wrong when you attempt hard drive destruction on your own. It’s a huge part of what Northeast Data Destruction does, so we know how to shred hard drives securely and efficiently. On your end, the process can be as easy as arranging a time for us to come pick up your old drives; we’ll handle the rest. If you have any questions about hard drive destruction, please contact me today!