Date: July 28, 2004
TO: Department of Chemistry Faculty, Students, and Staff
FROM: Boyd Haley, Chair of the Department of Chemistry
RE: Cleaning Hard Drives in Department of Chemistry Computers going to Surplus
The University of Kentucky has the legal responsibility to ensure the privacy of student and patient records. In the recent past, a number of computers were sent to Surplus still containing confidential information in a readable form. Since then, UK has required that all electronic files be destroyed from computers taken to Surplus Property. Surplus Property will not accept computers unless all files are destroyed and a signed Storage Device Cleaning form is attached. Interested parties can read the relevant parts of Section E 12-4 of the UK Business Procedures Manual.
There are 2 acceptable ways of destroying software and data files on computers:
a. Use specialty software to overwrite the disk, or
b. Physically remove the disk, render it nonoperational, and dispose of it.
a. Specialty Software (preferred method).
Make sure you get a Storage Device Cleaning form before you run the file destruction software. UK-approved file destruction software includes the following:
Download the destruction software on your PC, and then run it. Once all files have been destroyed, complete the Storage Device Cleaning form, stating what software was used to destroy the files, the equipment the software was used on, and who performed the operation (signature). This form must be attached to the computer when it is taken to Surplus Property.
b. Remove the Disk
(method of last resort).
If the computer is not working, you may not be able to download or run software to destroy all files. If so, you will have to physically remove all hard disks, then destroy and dispose of them. The Storage Device Cleaning form still has to be filled out when this method is used. By signing the form, you affirm that the computer was not working and that you purged the disk in accordance with UK Business Procedures Manual Section E-12-4.
After you have destroyed all files on the disk, notify the Department of Chemistry Information Technology specialist (Ed Duhr, 257-3899) before you do anything else to the computer. He will pick over the machine to salvage things that might be good for the Department to retain, eg, memory chips, video cards, ethernet cards, keyboards, etc. Once the PC has been wiped and the cleaning form filled out and signed, all computers must be sent to the Surplus Area in accordance with Department of Chemistry Procedures for Sending Equipment to Surplus.