A systems administrator at a financial institution is decommissioning a server that stored sensitive customer data on several magnetic hard disk drives (HDDs). The company's security policy mandates that the storage media be physically destroyed in a way that reduces them to fragments, ensuring the platters cannot be reassembled or forensically analyzed. Which of the following methods best meets this specific requirement?
The correct answer is shredding. Shredding uses specialized equipment to cut the hard drives, including the platters, into small, irregular fragments. This process directly meets the policy requirement of reducing the media to fragments, making it virtually impossible to reassemble the platters or recover data. Degaussing is incorrect because it is a magnetic sanitization method that erases data but does not physically destroy or fragment the drive. Drilling is a physical destruction method, but it only creates holes in the platters, leaving large sections of the magnetic surface intact and potentially recoverable. Wiping is a software-based data sanitization method that overwrites data and does not physically alter the drive at all.
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What is the main difference between shredding and degaussing when destroying HDDs?
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Why is drilling not as effective as shredding for HDD destruction?
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Can wiping be used in place of physical destruction for sensitive data, and why not?