Recycling your computer? Don't just hand it over!
Many organizations, including the University, offer computer hardware
recycling programs. In fact, recent years have seen changes in Federal
and local laws reflecting the need to properly dispose of old computer
and other electronic hardware. But simply participating in an authorized
recycling program is not the end of the road for your old PCs.
With most older computers, recycling is not done because they don't work
but because they are no longer powerful enough to do the jobs we need
them to do. But what many people don't realize is that information can
still be extracted from the other computer components, in particular,
the hard drives! Before recycling your old workstation or server (be it
through the University or a third-party), remember to take precautions
to guarantee that your private data is removed.
Simply deleting your sensitive files is not enough. The University
Information Security Office recommends using specialized software
designed to overwrite your data to prevent retrieval by unauthorized
parties. Some examples of software that will do this for you are:
Eraser (free) - http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
DBAN Boot and Nuke (free) - http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Symantec WipeInfo -
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/num.nsf/0/2c51a9ff0f178cd988256701006c4dbe?OpenDocument
Remember! Using any of these tools will render your hard drive unusable
so only use them after you've backed up your important data and are
ready to place the computer out for recycling.
For more information about the University's recycling program visit:
http://www9.georgetown.edu/facilities/recycling/