Disposal/Decommissioning
The disposal/decommissioning phase is the final stage in the life cycle of an asset. This phase involves the systematic removal, decommissioning, and disposal of assets that are no longer in use or have reached the end of their operational life. Proper disposal is crucial because it mitigates the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches and maintains regulatory compliance. It ensures that no residual data is left on any of the data drives, especially if the device was used to access classified data. Let’s look at some aspects of disposal/decommissioning:
- Sanitization: Sanitization is the process of securely removing all data and sensitive information from an asset before it is retired or disposed of. The primary goal of sanitization is to prevent unauthorized access to data that may still reside on the asset’s storage media. The methods of sanitization are as follows:
- Data wiping/overwriting: This method involves overwriting the...