Wipe your data for good

In many cases, wiping data from hard drives, USB sticks and Solid state dives is no guarantee, often allowing criminals to gain access to data that was already deleted. However, using the WipeDrive software suite ensures that data is properly removed from a device, and as such is used by corporations like banks and the US Military. The solution is now available in South Africa.

Permanently deleting information from computers and storage media is virtually impossible.

In almost all cases, wiping hard drives and data storage, such as USB or Solid State Drives, is not a guarantee that these are completely erased. As a result, confidential information is still accessible and criminals can use this to cause extensive damage. Considering the fact that banks, government and other organisations are in possession of large amounts of personal information, access to this data becomes even more of a threat.

South Africa has yet to find a comprehensive solution for this problem, with some institutions literally trashing valuable equipment once its in-house lifespan has come to an end. Not only does this have environmental implications in terms of increasing our carbon footprint through non re-use of materials, but also deprives under-privileged organisations of the opportunity to use second-hand equipment still in good working order.

All this may soon change.

WhiteCanyon Software of Utah, USA, suppliers of secure and certified data wiping products, has announced that its WipeDrive software suite is to be released in South Africa by Johannesburg-based SeKure-IT. This follows the appointment of SeKure-IT as Southern African distributor of all WhiteCanyon Software products.

WhiteCanyon is a leading provider of data wiping software in the UAS and Australia with WipeDrive. It has the world’s highest security certification and is used by global corporations such as CitiGroup, General Motors and Deloitte, as well as IBM, HP, Dell and the US military.

WipeDrive is currently the world’s only Common Criteria EAL4+ certified software for erasing hard drives and storage media. The Common Criteria standard is recognised in 26 countries.

With WipeDrive, secure data deletion can be performed directly on individual PCs or workstations, or by using remote access to many computers simultaneously. Choices are available whether to permanently erase all existing data and programs, or to only erase personal data. If the PCs are to be redeployed or donated, it is usually useful to retain the operating system and application software.

But how can permanent data deletion be ensured? WipeDrive is not only the world’s only erasing tool that meets the requirements of NIAP (National Information Partnership) and the Common Criteria EAL4+, but it automatically creates a certificate after a successful deletion, listing all components, what was wiped and confirming that no further files are available.

This is a necessity for large companies and government agencies due to the requirements of their internal and external auditors in accordance with the compliance requirements of ISO 27001. In addition, WipeDrive also reduces the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) significantly, as the manual destruction of hard drives, as the only current safe method of data erasure, is no longer necessary.