Re: Media Shredders

[Allison Dolan <adolan () MIT EDU>]

You may want to consider a 3rd party destruction service for CD/DVD/
Floppies - it may even be easier/less expensive, especially if you
have large volume

In my work re: protecting personally identifiable information (e.g.
SSN, and other data breach type info), I've learned that media
destruction isn't quite as straightforward as I thought.  There is,
for example, a National Association for Information Destruction,
complete with a certification process.

Certainly a lot depends on  how thoroughly you are required to
destroy information.  In one of their papers, they identify the
following concerns with in house destruction
-- typically do not qualify as certified destruction programs,
including absence of witnessed destruction
-- typically use  lowly compensated folks, who haven't had background
checks, and who may find value in taking items instead of destroying
them
-- waste product less likely to be recycled
-- cost, noise, potential mess
-- less likely to be scheduled, which could run afoul of e-discovery

The firms that provide paper shredding services, where they bring in
locked bins of various types, often will take CD/DVD/VHS, and
floppies.  That way users don't need a separate process for paper and
those types of media

Cintas is one of the few nationally NAID certified organizations -
see  http://www.cintas.com/DocumentManagement/DocumentShredding.aspx
(you can click on the 3 little picture icons to see the 2 types of
bins)  They provide the bins free of charge; the charge comes when
they take it away - which could be weekly, monthly, quarterly -
whatever works.)  Their website explicitly says they take CDs in with
the paper.

Rent-a-Crate has also moved into this area, with special higher ed
pricing (I don't know if you have to be part of the consortium) - $15
to take away a bin.  http://www.rentacrate.com/shredx.php  Their
website doesn't explicitly say they take mixed media - that may
depend on the destruction equipment in your area.  They also have an
'e-scrape' service for drives and other HW.


Allison F. Dolan
Program Director, Protecting Personally Identifiable Information
NE49-3021 (mail stop)  NE49-3037p (office)
(617) 252-1461
http://mit.edu/infoprotect




On Sep 10, 2008, at 6:01 PM, Perry, Jeff wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> We are looking at buying a moderate size commercial shredder to shred
> floppies and CD/DVD's to handle media that we either can't or are too
> tedious for our commercial degaussers.  I am looking for something
> with
> a reasonable duty cycle and warranty that is designed to handle
> quite a
> bit of media.  I can find lots of specific info on degaussers but I'm
> not having much luck finding shredders that specifically are rated for
> floppy and polycarbonate media and can handle a few hundred pieces a
> day.  Most product documentations says "will handle paper, credit
> cards,
> CD's, and staples".  But I'm sure there is a big difference between
> those that will take the occasional CD and those that will take
> floppies
> and CD's all day.
>
> Any recommendations would be appreciated.
>
> For those interested in degaussers:  We have an HD-3 from Gartner
> products that is really nice.  We are now looking at buying a larger
> HD-8800 to expand our "you bring it we'll nuke it" data destruction
> service.  We've seen a surprising amount of mag media that won't
> fit in
> a standard hard drive degaussers.  Who knew so many old large format
> video tapes and full size reels were still lurking in closets!
>
> Thanks,
> JP
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Jeff Perry, CISSP
> Manager, Security Services and Operations
> Information Security Office - A Division of Information Services
> The University of Kansas
> Office +1 785-864-9003
> Direct +1 785-864-0489
> Fax    +1 785-864-0485
> Email perry () ku edu
> --------------------------------------------
> http://www.security.ku.edu
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