220-1102 Question 521
Select 22.9 Compare and contrast common data destruction and disposal methods.A medical clinic is retiring several storage devices that previously held patient records. The clinic plans to donate a few newer SATA hard drives to a training lab, but several old failed drives will be sent to an electronics recycler. The clinic's policy requires that donated drives remain usable while ensuring data cannot be recovered, and failed drives must be rendered unusable before disposal. Which TWO actions best meet these requirements?
- A
Use a software-based wipe on the working drives, then verify the erase completed successfully before donating them
- B
Quick-format each working drive and reinstall the operating system before donating them
- C
Degauss the working drives before donating them to ensure the next user can still use them safely
- D
Physically shred or crush the failed drives before sending them to the recycler
- E
Delete the patient files and empty the Recycle Bin on all drives before disposal
Show answer and explanation
Correct answers: A, D
Explanation
The best answers are to sanitize working drives with a verified software wipe and to physically destroy failed drives. The scenario requires selecting different disposal methods based on whether the media must remain reusable. A software wipe is appropriate when a drive will be repurposed or donated, while physical destruction is appropriate when the drive has failed or must be permanently removed from service. Quick formatting and file deletion are not secure data destruction methods because data can often still be recovered. Degaussing is valid for magnetic media, but it is generally used when reuse is not required because it can leave the drive inoperable. These choices reflect common industry practices and align with guidance in standards and best practices such as NIST SP 800-88, which distinguishes between sanitization methods like clearing, purging, and destroying based on the sensitivity of the data and whether the media will be reused.
- A. Correct.
Correct. For working hard drives that will be reused, a software-based wipe/sanitize process is an appropriate method because it removes data while leaving the drive usable. Verifying completion is important in real environments to demonstrate the process succeeded and to support chain-of-custody or compliance requirements. On A+ Core 2, this aligns with choosing a data destruction method based on whether the media will be reused.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A quick format does not securely remove data; it mainly recreates filesystem structures and leaves much of the underlying data recoverable with common forensic or recovery tools. Reinstalling the operating system does not change that. This is a common misconception because the drive appears empty to the user, but the original data may still remain.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Degaussing is a magnetic data destruction method that can effectively disrupt data on magnetic media, but it also renders the drive unusable in practice. That makes it unsuitable when the goal is to donate a working drive for reuse. This option is tempting because degaussing is a valid destruction technique, but it does not meet the requirement to keep the drive operational.
- D. Correct.
Correct. Failed drives that do not need to be reused should be physically destroyed before disposal or recycling. Shredding or crushing is a recognized method to ensure data cannot be recovered from media that is no longer functional. This is especially appropriate for regulated data such as patient records when the device cannot be reliably sanitized through software methods.
- E. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Simply deleting files and emptying the Recycle Bin removes references to the data from the operating system, but the actual data often remains on the drive until overwritten. This does not meet secure disposal requirements for sensitive information and is another common but unsafe practice.