Data Security

How good is your Data Security?

We provide data security and data sanitization free of charge, to the highly regarded American DOD standard on all equipment we take in. This overwrites all data with zeros and one's. Any hard drives that fail the process or are too small for reuse, are put through our dedicated £20,000 Hard Drive Shredder to physically destroy them and this is done free of charge.　If you require all your hard drives shredded then this will incur a £3 per unit charge. A full paperwork trail is provided back to our clients. Call us to discuss your requirements.

Is waste kept out of landfill?

We aim to keep 100% of this equipment out of our landfills and make much of it available for reuse in our communities. In doing so, we help to save on natural resources and reduce carbon emissions. We do not EXPORT our waste and our energetic and innovative approach to the handling of WEEE allows our clients to demonstrate good overall re-use & recycling rates for WEEE.

Is your facility secure?

At Airedale Computer Recycling,  your data security and confidentiality are our highest priority.  Our staff are CRB police checked and our premises are monitor alarmed and completely covered by  24 internal and external CCTV cameras with sensors that alert staff by smartphone. Our perimeter is surrounded by security fencing.  Our main facility has internal and external shutters. Our vehicles are fitted with Tracker devices.

What about data security?

Every single hard drive goes through a rigorous process to ensure your data and our reputation are completely secure and there are various options available for you. Can't I simply Format the drive? Formatting a disk or deleting files DOES NOT remove the information from the disk!   "FORMAT" and "DELETE" are routines that only remove pointers and leave data intact!  You can simply use the commands: "UNFORMAT" and "UNDELETE" to get the data back.

How do you securely wipe a hard drive inside a computer?

If a drive is to be reused, we run our sanitizing software system which overwrites all sectors of the drive with zeros and one's to ensure complete eradication of data.  We have a 10 technician unlimited use license for this highly regarded commercial product. As the computer is later refurbished, the drive is then overwritten again with an operating system, application programs and internet security software. our bench is equipped with 15 systems for simultaneous sanitizing.

What disk-wiping software do you use?

We use East-Tecs Disk-Sanitizer which offers the guaranteed destruction of sensitive data on hard disks using special algorithms. It works in compliance with the best known US Government standards: American: U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M; American: NAVSO P-5239-26 (RLL); American: NAVSO P-5239-26 (MFM); This is an expensive commercial sanitizing solution that was funded for us.

How does it work?

Besides these algorithms corresponding to national, and governmental standards, Disk-Sanitzer uses predefined algorithms proposed by well-known and authoritative specialists in the field of information security.

What if I have very sensitive data?

In that case for a small cost, we can put your hard drives through our dedicated £20,000 3-phase hard drive shredder. This is a powerful device that can shred 60 hard drives per hour. You can bring your drives to us yourself or they can be collected with the rest of your old IT equipment for certified shredding. What areas do you cover? We will travel free to businesses or schools anywhere in West Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, East Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire. We are regularly in Normanton, Leeds, Wakefield, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Keighley, Elland, Hebden Bridge, Goole, Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield and Doncaster.  We may collect outside of Yorkshire but we may have to recover travelling expenses.

What is Hard Drive Shredding?

This is a powerful device that can shred 60 hard drives per hour. You can bring your drives to us and have your data-bearing devices destroyed in front of you or they can be securely returned to our facility for certified shredding here.  We even have a locked secure cabinet we can bring to the site that you feed your drives in through a slot and then it is opened on return to our facility by a manager with the only key and you can watch on CCTV as they are removed and fed through our shredder. How do you dispose of non-working hard drives? Any hard drives that are not being reused or those that fail the refurbishing process are put through our powerful 3-phase “Hard Drive Shredder” to physically destroy the drive. This device can turn any size drive into tiny unrecoverable pieces which are sent for metals reclamation to extract the raw materials. A drive contains aluminum, steel, and circuit boards.

What happens to the data on shredded drives?

Once the disk platter has been bent even slightly, the magnetic coating will be cracked and it would take a dedicated laboratory such as in CSI Miami along with £½ Million worth of electron scanning microscopes coupled with an enormous amount of time to get even a minute fraction of any data and even that would be random data. According to one industry source, “It would take more than a year to scan a single platter with recent MFM technology, and tens of terabytes of image data would have to be processed. Magnetic force microscopy and Magnetic Force Scanning Tunnelling Microscope Imaging of Overwritten Data”.

Information Commissioners Office Penalties For Data Breaches

The newly imposed hefty fine of up to £500,000 for a serious data breach which came into effect in April 2010, has forced organisations in the UK to re-evaluate their data security practices and ensure proper measures to prevent data breaches.  Some of the first organisations to fall foul of these new Data Protection regulations ended up with hefty monetary penalties.

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One NHS department was recently fined £200,000 (July 2013) and they used an authorised and accredited recycler to dispose of their PCs and Hard Drives.

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Talk to us and we’ll advise how to keep your data safe.

We have a special insurance indemnity to protect our clients against these penalties should it be proven that the data loss fault lies with us.

The Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act 1998 establishes a framework of rights and duties that are designed to safeguard personal data. This framework balances the legitimate needs of organisations to collect and use personal data for business and other purposes against the right of individuals to respect for the privacy of their details.

The relevant provision of the Act is the Seventh Data Protection Principle which provides, at Part I of Schedule 1 to the Act, that: “Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data”.

More information and guidance can be found at the Information Commissioner's Office

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