Advancements and Misconceptions of Software Data Destruction

by Stephen Hales

We’re in glorious times for electronic storage. Never before have hard drive sizes given us the freedom of storing absolutely everything, whether it’s your companies sensitive data or your forever growing library of fantasy teams spreadsheets, music and movies we’ve all become accustomed to having the space to become e-hoarders. It’s cool, no judgments from me because I’m worthy of my own reality TV show in this regard.
The down side in this storage capacity explosion is that companies like DCR are using more and more energy by running brute-force data destruction methods that were meant for drives in a different era. The reason why we use these methods? For starters there is no governing body that tells the industry “it is this way, or no way” and no one is out there educating the customer about the evolution of storage, the software used to service them and how these well known, go-to methods can easily be replaced with new methods and a new mindset that we can deliver repurposed hard drives with a piece of mind that your precious data’s existence ends at our test-benches.
Stay tuned as I dig deeper into this subject and I get into what I’m doing as a responsible Engineer in this industry to change the currently used data destruction methods and shed some light on how we could be using 66% less electricity to achieve the same results, with healthier product as a side-effect..

Stephen has been with DCR since January 2006, specializing in data destruction, mass OS image deployment, OS customization, test and audit automation as well as a providing second touch engineering services for manufacturers Enterprise, OEM and Custom Factory Integration. On his down time, he enjoys spending time with his family and is an avid guitar player and snowmobiler.