Chris Lindsay

Recent news reports on the dangers of sensitive information left on hard drives of dispatched multi-function devices (MFDs) has created a lot of anxiety throughout companies.

 

IPMA member Chris Lindsay of Raytheon Company - Tucson was quick to respond to IPMA's request for solutions. "We have been cleaning hard drives since the first MFD was installed at this facility more than 12 years ago," Raytheon's Print Manager explained.

 

"The MFD fleet manager and our Information Technology organization recognized the potential vulnerability early on," he said. They negotiated an agreement with their MFD supplier to allow the hard drive to be removed, cleansed and a completely blank hard drive returned to the supplier after the cleansing process. "In essence we treat the hard drives of MFDs with the same level of importance as the hard drives of our desktop computers when they are refreshed." 

 

To ensure the highest level of security, Raytheon created a seamless process for cleansing hard drives that matches the stringent requirements of the Department of Defense. "Our agreement with Xerox provides on-site DocuCare staff to coordinate the removal of hard drives when the machines are replaced or removed from any of our plant sites," Lindsay said.  "The DocuCare staff removes hard drives and immediately transports the drives to my location. Using WipeDrive Pro5 software from White Canyon, all information on the drive is erased and overwritten three times. The software then verifies the over-write process and provides certification that can be printed for our records."

 

Just formatting a hard drive does not erase everything on the disk. Lindsay emphasizes that you must run special software to erase the data to avoid the risk of exposing sensitive information retained on the hard drive.

 

"WipeDrive Pro5, which costs around $400, allows for unlimited use which means you can clean as many drives as you wish, as often as you wish," Lindsay said. WipeDrive Pro5 is just one of a variety of software sanitizers available on the market today. Xerox, for example, offers image overwrite software for many of its models. "At our Tucson facility, all leased workgroup MFDs during the past four years contain ImageOverwrite software as a standard feature."  This cleansing software can be scheduled to overwrite the information on the hard drives at selected intervals: every print activity, on demand or scheduled intervals.  "In conjunction with our standard 5-year lease, within a year almost all MFD hard drives will be scrubbed using the standard overwrite software on the machine." It should be noted that almost all major MFD manufacturers offer similar software.

 

Whatever the software used, all in-plants are urged to create, document and implement a company-wide MFD cleansing process to protect sensitive information from potential compromise.