Why pushing delete doesn’t really delete your data

When you hit the delete button on a computer file, what happens? You may assume that by deleting the file, you’ve erased the data. That’s a common, but potentially harmful assumption to make.

When you “delete” a file, it only removes the file name from the file directory. Basically, your operating system no longer knows where the file is, so it assumes it’s gone. But it’s not really gone. The deleted item is still on your hard drive, just in a different place. Until new information is written over that data, it’s still very possible to extract the deleted data.  That means, your deleted data is a major security issue.

So, what’s the solution? Taking a hammer to your hard drive? Here’s the thing: deleting confidential information is not a DIY project. Don’t do it yourself. Data can still be retrieved from partially damaged hard drives. When it comes to erasing personally identifiable or private business information (think confidential business records, social security numbers, etc.) and protected health information, do you really want to leave that up to chance?

Stevens and Stevens’ hard drive destruction services offer a secure and complete method for the disposal of your organization’s hard drives. One of our screened and trained personnel will arrive at your facility for pickup of your hard drives and securely transport them back to our media destruction facility. All that’s left of your data will be a completely unreadable pile of debris.  Now that’s secure!