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Security Procedures Last Modified: 8/2/2010 Electronic Media Disposal (ISSP-009) Introduction Restricted data, such as proprietary information and student information, may reside on various types of media throughout the University. Due to technological advancements, simple deletion or formatting does not provide enough protection of restricted data. Deleted files usually will remain on the media for long periods of time, and many software tools are now available to recover such data. Many state and federal regulations may also require the removal of information from electronic media be made in a secure fashion. For more detailed information please refer to NIST special pulblication 800-88: Guideline for media sanitation. http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_rev1.pdf This document provides procedures to be followed to ensure the proper removal of such data when the media containing the data will be: Transferred to another person or unit within the University Declared as surplus property Donated Is no longer functional, or Retention of the data is no longer required by the State Record Retention Schedules Scope This document applies to all electronic media containing USF restricted data, per ISSP-001. If the media content cannot be determined with certainty the equipment must be handled as if it contained restricted data. Electronic media is defined by any electronic medium used to store information such as Hard Drives, Backup Tapes, thumb drives, CDROMS, and Floppy Disks. Procedure If media containing data, or a device housing such media, will be transferred to another unit (USF affiliated or not) or has been declared as surplus property the data on that media must be removed prior to releasing the media. Please note: once destroyed in the manner described below, these files cannot be recovered. The University and/or the Information Security Workgroup are not responsible for unwanted effects the use of this software may cause. Do not use the methods described below unless you are certain the data will no longer be needed. Overwriting the Data In order to prevent recovery, the one of the options is to overwrite the space previously occupied by the restricted data. The tool used may depend on the operating system used and the amount of data to be overwritten. Overwriting Single Files One of the options for single file/unused disk space overwriting is a GNU Public License (GPL) file called Eraser. The software can be obtained at http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ and it supports a Electronic Media Disposal University of South Florida Security Procedures Last Modified: 8/2/2010 variety of Operating Systems. Eraser can be used, for instance, to effectively erase an Excel spreadsheet file containing restricted student data. Overwriting the Entire Media When a computer is being surplused or donated it is often necessary to wipe the contents of the entire disk. This can be a long and tedious process. Darik’s Boot and Nuke is an application which includes several overwriting methods, supports a great variety of PC hardware, and can be used as a boot disk, as the name suggests. Administrators can download an image from http://dban.sourceforge.net/ and burn a boot disk. Because it works as a boot disk, the software is Operating System independent. It will work on any Intel/AMD machine. Degaussing Degaussing is the application of a strong magnetic field to a magnetic media storage device in order to effectively erase its contents. Bulk erasers or degaussers are used to perform such a task. These equipments are ideal to erase backup tapes and other standalone magnetic media, since they do not require the media to be powered during the process. Much like Darik’s Boot and Nuke, a degausser will erase the entire content of the media. Media wiped clean by a degausser can most of the time be reused. All degaussing technologies should be tested when using a medium type to make sure the degaussing device works with the particular type of medium. For example CDROMS do not work with degaussing technology at all. Physical Destruction of Media Physical destruction of the media may be the ultimate solution. In the same manner credit cards may be shredded to avoid credit theft, faulty media containing restricted data must be physically destroyed whenever possible. Destruction can be as simple as unraveling and cutting up old tape reels, tearing up and splitting floppy disks, or putting CDROMs through a shredder. It is usually a much quicker process than overwriting data, and when done properly just as effective Hiring a Third Party Due to the time investment required to process the media, it may be advantageous to hire a thirdparty record management and destruction company to perform the media wipe. If that’s the case, the vendor must provide a written statement explaining the procedure, include a time estimate in which the media will be stored awaiting processing, and a statement assuming responsibility over the confidentiality of the data while under their possession. Vendors and Equipment Maintenance Maintenance and warranty contracts frequently require failed media to be returned to the vendor. Any such vendor must provide a written statement containing an assurance that any data on failed media will be purged in accordance with this policy. Electronic Media Disposal University of South Florida