Compliance With Privacy Amendment Act 2000 Made Easy With Blancco
Announcement posted by ComSecent Enterprises 26 Sep 2001
Australian based ComSecent providing simple solutions to mounting issue for enterprise
With December 21st rolling around, there are a number of issues to be considered by organizations needing to ensure they comply with new amendments to the Privacy Act. One of the more obscure facets of the new amendments is the responsibility of organizations to dispose of personal data on redundant computers. Simply deleting a file or formatting the disk does not remove the data on the hard disk. These methods only erase the file pointers in the file allocation table of the hard disk. This leaves all of the raw data on the hard disk just waiting, in some cases for many years, to be recovered. Simple utilities available over the Internet allow up to 95% of this data to be easily recovered.
Mr. John Adams, Editor of Security Electronics Magazine recently reported on a test conducted to determine the amount of data easily restored from two ex-lease computers. Both units had formatted hard disks, but this did not prevent customer account details, internal memos, passwords, security protocols and a significant amount of personal data from being retrieved from the hard disk. Despite the best intentions of the previous users of the units, this would clearly constitute a breach of the new Privacy Act.
Tough new privacy regulations in the EU have governed over the charging and jailing of company directors and managers deemed responsible for such breaches. This harsh new reality takes it beyond critical for business to take additional measures to protect the integrity of companies and individuals using computer technology.
The Privacy Act amendments ensure huge liability concerns exist for organizations not adopting stricter measures to manage data erasure from disk drives. Many methods exist for the safe erasure of data from a hard disk, but the cost of existing solutions has proven prohibitive for most, meaning many organizations simply format the hard disk. This method is proven to be completely insufficient.
Finnish company, Blancco OY, has provided the answer to these concerns for Australian business. Responding to the need for a cost-effective way to minimize risk and exposure for enterprise and the SME sector alike, Blancco OY now offer a new software product called the Blancco Data Cleaner. The Blancco Data Cleaner is the most accessible, affordable and easy-to-implement measure for the complete erasure of trace data from a hard disk.
Laboratory tested by the notoriously tough National Software Testing Laboratory (NSTL) in the USA, the Blancco Data Cleaner came up trumps. Using the variety of rigorous methods for which they are famed, the NSTL was not able to get past the Septem Overwrite procedure utilized by the Blancco Date Cleaner, which writes random data to the hard disk up to seven times. The NSTL could not access any of the data confirmed to be on the disk drives prior to testing.
While free downloads can be found on the internet claiming to provide a solution to correctly erasing hard drives, these solutions are difficult to qualify, and can not be guarantee to meet government and industry standards. At a licensing fee of only $2.80 for volume purchases, and individual licenses likely to land between $50-60, the Blancco Data Cleaner is a viable, affordable and internationally tested solution within reach of all business. Blancco have developed a product so easily adopted, and yet so unique in its capacity to achieve a near absolute result, it is set to become a new industry standard for businesses serious about minimizing privacy related risk.
For organizations seeking fast, effective and easy-to-implement compliance measures for IT security tasks, the additional of the Blancco Data Cleaner should be considered critical for any IT Security toolkit.
The Blancco Data Cleaner is available from ComSecent Enterprises in Brisbane.
www.comsecent.com.au
Mr. John Adams, Editor of Security Electronics Magazine recently reported on a test conducted to determine the amount of data easily restored from two ex-lease computers. Both units had formatted hard disks, but this did not prevent customer account details, internal memos, passwords, security protocols and a significant amount of personal data from being retrieved from the hard disk. Despite the best intentions of the previous users of the units, this would clearly constitute a breach of the new Privacy Act.
Tough new privacy regulations in the EU have governed over the charging and jailing of company directors and managers deemed responsible for such breaches. This harsh new reality takes it beyond critical for business to take additional measures to protect the integrity of companies and individuals using computer technology.
The Privacy Act amendments ensure huge liability concerns exist for organizations not adopting stricter measures to manage data erasure from disk drives. Many methods exist for the safe erasure of data from a hard disk, but the cost of existing solutions has proven prohibitive for most, meaning many organizations simply format the hard disk. This method is proven to be completely insufficient.
Finnish company, Blancco OY, has provided the answer to these concerns for Australian business. Responding to the need for a cost-effective way to minimize risk and exposure for enterprise and the SME sector alike, Blancco OY now offer a new software product called the Blancco Data Cleaner. The Blancco Data Cleaner is the most accessible, affordable and easy-to-implement measure for the complete erasure of trace data from a hard disk.
Laboratory tested by the notoriously tough National Software Testing Laboratory (NSTL) in the USA, the Blancco Data Cleaner came up trumps. Using the variety of rigorous methods for which they are famed, the NSTL was not able to get past the Septem Overwrite procedure utilized by the Blancco Date Cleaner, which writes random data to the hard disk up to seven times. The NSTL could not access any of the data confirmed to be on the disk drives prior to testing.
While free downloads can be found on the internet claiming to provide a solution to correctly erasing hard drives, these solutions are difficult to qualify, and can not be guarantee to meet government and industry standards. At a licensing fee of only $2.80 for volume purchases, and individual licenses likely to land between $50-60, the Blancco Data Cleaner is a viable, affordable and internationally tested solution within reach of all business. Blancco have developed a product so easily adopted, and yet so unique in its capacity to achieve a near absolute result, it is set to become a new industry standard for businesses serious about minimizing privacy related risk.
For organizations seeking fast, effective and easy-to-implement compliance measures for IT security tasks, the additional of the Blancco Data Cleaner should be considered critical for any IT Security toolkit.
The Blancco Data Cleaner is available from ComSecent Enterprises in Brisbane.
www.comsecent.com.au