RE: Corporate policy question - Personal Laptops

["David Gillett" <gillettdavid () fhda edu>]

  UNLESS you have evidence that the machine in question was used 
to do work for the company, any examination or tampering with it 
can get your company in a world of legal trouble.  (I am not a
lawyer, but I bet your company counsel tells you the same thing.)

David Gillett


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Yarrish [mailto:cdtdelta () gmail com] 
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:54 AM
> To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: Corporate policy question - Personal Laptops
>
> Hey all,
> Needed some advice on a corporate policy issue.  If an 
> employee has a personal laptop in the office, and that 
> employee is terminated in the process of a merger, can the 
> company wipe the hard drive of the personal computer before 
> it's returned to that employee?  Here's the
> scenario:
>
> Our company is going through a merger, and through the rounds 
> of "integration" of the two companies, employees that are let 
> go from the IT department are escorted out of the building 
> immediately, and not allowed to return. Their manager packs 
> up their personal affects and ships it to them.  In one case, 
> the employee had some personal laptops in their office, and 
> wants them back (obviously).  Are we allowed to wipe the hard 
> drive of that personal laptop before giving it back to the employee?
>
> I'm trying to determine if this is even legal or not, so I'm 
> not sure where to look for advice.
>
> Thanks ahead of time....