Legality of drive wiping

[marv at madmarvonline.com (Mad Marv)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I'd ping the guys at Cyberspeak's podcast (cyberspeak.libsyn.com) and
ask them for an example of a bulletproof data retention policy and reuse
of hard drives after wiping.

>    I can think of many valid reasons for wiping a drives freespace
> routinely:
>
> 1. Protect privacy from others with physical access.
> 2. Fear that the machine might be stolen.
> 3. Donating the machine.
> 4. Reallocating the machine to someone of a different security level.

Numbers 1 and 2 are a bit suspect.  The non-white space on a hard drive
is just as valuable if not more so, and wiping free space doesn't
protect that info.  Numbers 3 and 4 don't sound routine if you're
talking about individual hard drives being wiped every week or so.  But,
they do fit into a policy for re-purposing hardware.

One more idea to add to the list:  Wipe a hard drive that has been
infected with malware prior to re-imaging.

Marv
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAktLf0AACgkQkOgHKNOb0dG7tACfWs2Hjf+LlOZ2XWd5ERCUMnYN
jYMAn3ebXHvNnBgu+b1HsNcDi1Z7DxeR
=I84M
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----