Hard Drives vs. SSDs: How Destruction Methods Must Evolve with Technology

August 11, 2025 at 8:00 am by Amanda Canale

Secure data destruction has evolved over the Digital Age from a best practice to a legal and operational necessity. Yet many organizations still rely on outdated processes that were initially designed for hard disk drives (HDDs) but are ineffective for newer technologies like solid-state drives (SSDs).

At Security Engineered Machinery (SEM), we recognize that the storage medium matters when it comes to data destruction. Understanding the technical differences between HDDs and SSDs is crucial to ensuring total data sanitization.

Critical Shreds

HDDs use magnetic platters while SSDs use flash memory chips, meaning the difference in technology requires different destruction methods.
Combining degaussing and shredding provides secure destruction of HDDs. However, degaussing is not applicable to SSDs and shredding can often leave recoverable data behind.
Improper HDD and SSD destruction increases the risk of data breaches and violates data protection laws like HIPAA, NIST 800-88, and the NSA/CSS standard.

How HDDs and SSDs Store Data Differently

HDDs and SSDs serve the same purpose—data storage—but use entirely different technologies under the hood. HDDs rely on magnetic platters that spin while mechanical read/write heads access data. The magnetic nature of these platters makes them ideal candidates for destruction via degaussing, crushing, or shredding.

SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory chips to store data electronically. Instead of a central platter, data is distributed across numerous microscopic cells embedded within integrated circuits. These memory chips retain data even after being damaged or wiped, which makes secure destruction much more complex. The same methods that easily destroy HDDs often leave SSDs partially intact.

Why Traditional HDD Methods Don’t Work on SSDs

Degaussing is a proven solution for magnetic media as it neutralizes magnetic fields and scrambles the binary code, rendering HDD platters unreadable. However, degaussers have no effect whatsoever on SSDs since they contain no magnetic components.

Similarly, shredders designed for HDDs often fail to fully destroy SSDs. HDDs can be shredded into coarse strips or chunks while still meeting compliance. But SSDs require a much smaller particle size, ideally 2mm or less, to ensure all flash memory chips are destroyed. Shredding SSDs without reaching this level of granularity can leave data recoverable by forensics tools.

The distributed architecture of SSDs means a fragment as small as a thumbnail can still contain sensitive data. That makes precision destruction absolutely critical.

DD: Degauss and Destroy

While it’s been established that degaussing should only be used for magnetic HDDs, it’s important to note that it should not be the sole method of destruction. Per the NSA, a magnetic HDD carrying classified information should be degaussed then physically destroyed by way of shredding or crushing. This, “degauss and destroy” two-way method ensures the complete and total obliteration of any end-of-life media. At SEM, we have a line of Degauss and Destroy options that combine the use of the Model EMP1000-HS degausser and other NSA-listed HDD destroyers.

Though this process is required for classified information, it is a good rule of thumb for all sensitive information, regardless of the industry.

Disintegration: Ultimate Security

While shredding may work for some storage media, SSDs require a more precise and thorough approach to ensure complete data destruction.

Since data is distributed across the cells on an SSD, typical destruction efforts such as shredding or crushing can often leave drives partially intact, and stored data vulnerable to theft. This is where disintegrators come into play. Contrary to shredders, disintegrators utilize rotor knives to pulverize material and push it through a predetermined screen size. This mechanism grinds end-of-life material into uniform, fine particles, leaving no fragmented pieces behind. With this method, drives are repeatedly cut until they can pass through the screen, producing a much smaller (and more secure) particle size.

According to the NSA, for a solid state disintegrator to be NSA/CSS listed, it must be able to “reduce any solid state storage device to a maximum edge size of 2 millimeter or less.” A prime example of this kind of technology is the SEM Model SSD2-HS Solid State Disintegrator, a high security destruction device that breaks down end-of-life SSDs down to required 2mm particle size.

The Risk of Inadequate SSD Destruction

Failing to completely destroy SSDs at end-of-life is a major security risk. Sensitive data—including financial records, healthcare files, classified information, or customer credentials—can remain on leftover memory chips. This residual data can be extracted by criminals or competitors with minimal effort.

Even if an organization believes data has been deleted or wiped, data recovery software and hardware forensics tools can still retrieve unencrypted remnants. The consequences are far-reaching: data breaches, identity theft, intellectual property theft, and noncompliance fines are all on the table.

The risk isn’t just technical—it’s legal. Compliance regulations like HIPAA, NIST SP 800-88, and PCI-DSS all require verifiable data destruction methods based on media type and sensitivity level.

Built for Compliance and Peace of Mind

To mitigate risk and ensure compliance, organizations must implement destruction processes that align with:

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST 800-88)
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)

Failure to comply can result in audits, penalties, and reputational damage. Proper destruction practices are essential not just for security, but for legal protection and organizational integrity.

Looking Ahead: Future-Proofing Your Data Destruction Strategy

As storage technology evolves, data destruction methods must keep pace. Organizations should continually evaluate their policies and equipment to ensure alignment with modern threats and storage formats.

Forward-thinking approaches may include:

Investing in SSD-specific crushers or disintegrators
Implementing secure chain-of-custody protocols
Regularly updating policies in accordance with regulatory changes

After all, proper planning today can prevent catastrophic failures tomorrow.

Are Printers and Copiers Stealing Your Information?

August 2, 2021 at 6:15 pm by Amanda Canale

Copiers, printers, and document scanners are just as much office staples as any other piece of equipment (aside from, probably, an actual stapler). While these kinds of devices are not programmed to typically store any sensitive data, they may be harboring more data than you think. Everything from new employee records, tax forms, HR documents, and other kinds of personally identifiable information (PII) and unclassified or classified information are just ticking time bombs. In this blog, we discuss how hackers can tap into your copiers and scanners and steal your private information.

Since approximately 2002, most digital copiers and printers use hard drives that store and manage all the data, documents, and images you are copying, printing, and scanning. Mix that with their web-based interfaces, and now your office serves as the perfect cocktail to lure in online hackers. (In layman’s terms, this means that your copies are essentially giant computers and vulnerable to all sorts of cyber-attacks!)

Most digital copier manufacturers offer some sort of data security feature that involves encryption and/or overwriting to ensure the safety of whatever information you are printing, copying, or scanning. So hopefully, your office’s IT department has already either installed the software to protect you and your data from cyber-attacks or has a system in place to securely sanitize that data. It’s important to discuss your device’s security features with your IT department since each device is different; you should know whether your device’s memory is automatically wiped, needs to be manually wiped on a preset schedule, or another option altogether. Depending on what those features entail, a schedule should be set in place to ensure a routine is followed.

Some practices you and your team can integrate into your routine are using authentication or additional verification methods that include a mix of a password, card swipe, biometric information, or other similar methods. By implementing more preventive measures, you can help lower your risk of cyber-attacks.

Remember when we said that copiers are essentially giant computers? Well, that also means that their hard drives work the same as computer drives in that overwriting a drive is vastly different than reformatting or deleting. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), simply deleting the data or reformatting the copier’s hard drive “doesn’t actually alter or remove the data, but rather alters how the hard drive finds the data and combines it to make files: The data remains and may be recovered through a variety of utility software programs.” Like other hard disk drives, methods such as cryptographic erasure and data erasure would allow the drive to be used again, but these are not secure and foolproof destruction methods. Information, whether encrypted or unencrypted, can still linger behind on the drive and be accessed, even if it has previously been deleted or overwritten. (You can read more about how not to destroy hard drives in our previous blog post.)

When it comes time to destroy your copier’s end-of-life hard drives, it is always best practice to conduct destruction and degaussing in-house. To ensure the secure destruction of your data, SEM recommends always following NSA standards and degaussing all magnetic media, including hard disk drives (HDDs), prior to physical destruction in a shredder or crusher.

By degaussing the drive prior to physical destruction, organizations are choosing the most secure method of data destruction per NSA guidelines as this is the only way to be certain that the end-of-life data has been properly destroyed. When magnetic media is placed in one of our degaussers, powerful magnetic fields essentially scramble and sanitize the magnetic tapes and drives, eliminating all sensitive information from the device. This crucial step securely renders the drive completely inoperable. Once the device has been degaussed, it should be physically destroyed. This two-step method of degaussing and physical destruction — mandated by the NSA for classified media — is without a doubt the most secure method of sanitization for magnetic media such as HDDs.

Solid state drives (SSDs) and optical media cannot be degaussed, so it is critical that each and every chip on a solid state board is destroyed in order to properly sanitize the data. Depending on media type, crushing, shredding, or disintegrating is recommended. It is also important to remember that a data breach is a data breach, no matter the level of impact. At SEM, we have solutions to securely destroy any type of media on any type of device, ensuring your end-of-life data stays where it belongs: at the end of its life.

Your Phone Knows What You Did Last Summer: 8 Places Your Data is Living That May Surprise You

July 6, 2021 at 8:00 am by Amanda Canale

According to a 2018 study by MightySignal, there are more than 1,000 different mobile apps available that contain some sort of location-sharing and tracking code. These codes are typically used to gather information on the public’s shopping patterns to help developers make money on targeted ads. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only kind of data some of them are gathering. In this blog, we break down eight different places your data is living that may surprise you.

Dating Sites/Apps

We all want to find love, and today with a plethora of dating apps available, it’s never been easier. However, you may be telling potential partners and app developers more than what’s in your dating profile. Apps such as Tinder and Hinge request and require access to your location in order to find potential matches in your general area.

While filling out your likes and dislikes, your location, and what you do for work may be normal things to share with your dates, putting them on your public profile for all potential suitors to see can potentially cause more harm than good. Not to mention, a large chunk of dating apps ranging from Tinder and Plenty of Fish to Hinge and OKCupid are owned by one single company: Match Group. Match Group’s numerous apps reserve the right to share data with one another, even if you’re only using one of their apps.

Photo Editing Apps

Whether it’s adding bunny ears, erasing a blemish, or making your selfie look like it was taken on a vintage Polaroid, everyone loves a good photo filter. However, most photo filter apps require, or at the very least request, access to your entire camera roll rather than the one photo you want to edit. (Remember the saying, “a picture tells a thousand words?” Imagine what kind of personal information your entire camera roll can share!) In addition, many photo editing apps also link to social media apps, not only making way for a seamless snap, edit, and post, but securing a direct access link to all your social media profiles for potential hackers.

Young woman working with a laptop. Female freelancer connecting to internet via computer. Blogger or journalist writing new article. Close-up of female hands typing on keyboard

Weather Apps

Rain or shine, there’s always a small risk your data could be leaked. While you’re not at a moderate or high risk of your data being stolen from your favorite weather app, your location and location history is still being tracked and can be collected from other apps if they are linked together.

Social Media Accounts

Since the early 2000s, the popularity of social media profiles has grown exponentially, with the most popular ones being Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. It’s now commonplace in our society for social media users to document their entire lives online in the form of vlogs, blogs, and TikToks, meaning there’s less and less of our lives that aren’t posted online. As more people share more and more personal information, the more push there is for stricter user privacy laws and regulations.

It’s always best practice to not share too much information online that can be personally identifying, such as your address, personal contact information, work location, etc. Utilize your social media accounts’ and mobile devices’ privacy settings, and remove any contact information and data from the social media sites you no longer use.

Gaming Apps

In 2018, a COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) study found that in approximately 20% of children’s apps, developers included code that collected and distributed personally identifiable information (PII) without confirming parental consent. The information often gathered by these apps range from the child’s name and email address (or parent’s depending on whose device is being used), home and mailing address, and parent information.

Mobile Wallets

Mobile wallets are a hassle-free way to pay for groceries, gifts, and more without having to dig through your wallet or purse to find your credit cards. It’s convenient being able to store all of your payment options in one place, just make sure to protect it when it comes to the safety of your digital wallet. Be sure to enable your phone’s security features, protect your phone and digital wallet with a password, fingerprint, or other authentication method, and avoid using public Wi-Fi when accessing sensitive data.

Rental Cars (Smart Phone Connection)

You may want to rethink syncing your driving playlist or connecting your GPS to your rental car on your next road trip. If you connect to your rental car via Bluetooth, your rental car can store previous locations, phone number, call log, and even contacts, making it much easier for the next renter to hack your information. Make sure you check your permissions, avoid connecting your mobile device to the car’s infotainment system, and delete any information from the system before returning the car.

Old Laptops and Drives

By now, we all know that simply erasing information from a laptop, tablet, or drive is not enough to keep your information safe. When erasing data off a drive, it’s possible that unencrypted and encrypted information can linger and become fair game for hackers. While methods such as cryptographic and data erasure would allow the drive to be used again, it is not a secure and foolproof data destruction method. Information, whether encrypted or unencrypted, can still linger behind on the drive and be accessed, even if it has previously been deleted or overwritten.

Unfortunately, as we get further into the Digital Age, the more personal information we are knowingly (and unknowingly) sharing, the more information developers are collecting about us, and the higher the chances are of a potential data breach. While many apps, developers, and businesses claim to only be interested in tracking the public’s patterns and not identities, the information they are gathering can technically be described as personally identifiable (PII). Tracking an individual’s location as they go to work, the gym, home, and even their doctor’s office can easily lead to identifying individuals. The average app, whether Android or Apple, has approximately six different data trackers embedded into it while some applications request access to more information than what is needed.

We understand that not every app or rental car company is trying to steal your data; apps that track jogging routes or utilize the option to share your location with your loved ones serve legitimate purposes. We at SEM stress that individuals should opt for the “Ask App not to Track” option in their device’s personal settings, only share their information with legitimate apps, and be mindful about where they offer up their information.

To sanitize your end-of-life laptops and drives, we recommend revisiting some of our old blogs on hard drive destruction misconceptions and ways to NOT destroy your drives for more information. Regardless of the catalyst for your drive destruction, it is always best practice to conduct destruction and degaussing in-house and to follow NSA standards. At SEM we have an array of various high-quality NSA listed/CUI and unclassified magnetic media degaussers, IT crushers, and enterprise IT shredders to meet any regulation.

Good, Better, Best: Hard Drive Destruction Solutions for State and Local Governments

May 11, 2020 at 9:33 am by SEM

There are many different options in the market place to destroy hard drives. Everything from erase software, to degaussers, to many different forms of physical destruction. So the question becomes “What is the best solution for me”?

When it comes to destroying hard drives for State and Local Governments, most experts agree the best and most secure method is to degauss the drive and then use some form of physical destruction. While this combination solution is the best method, there are others that are effective that only require one step. Here are some ideas:

GOOD

Physical Destruction

For most State and Local Governments, this is an entry level destruction option. You can use either use a crushing method such as a SEM Model 0101 Hard Drive Crusher or for added security, shred the drives using the SEM Model 0300 HDD Shredder.

SEM 0101 Hard Drive Crusher

The SEM Model 0101 hard drive crusher destroys all hard drives regardless of their size, format or type (up to 1.85” thick), including drives found in laptops, desktops and server systems. The Model 0101 has been tested by the NSA and is listed by the NSA as the highest performing HDD punching device making It suitable as a physical destruction solution of the DoD mandated Degauss and Destroy process. Check out a video of the 0101 here.

SEM 0300 Hard Drive Shredder

When it comes to the fast, safe, easy destruction of hard drives, nothing outperforms the SEM hard drive shredder line, including the SEM Model 0300. This slow speed, high torque shredder uses specially designed saw tooth hook cutters to chew up about 8 hard drives in a minute that produce a 1.5” wide particle size. That’s just 7.5 seconds per drive. The unit is designed for an office environment and plugs conveniently into standard wall outlets. Check out a video about the 0300 here.

BETTER

Degauss and Destroy

For a higher level of security, State and Local Governments may want to consider the two step process of erasing data with a degausser and destroying the media with a crusher. This would give you peace of mind that the drive has been degaussed, which renders the drive completely useless. Once the drive has been sanitized, additionally physically destroying the media makes it inoperable to 100% ensure no information can ever be accessed again. Below is our most popular option.

SEM EMP1000-HS and SEM Model 0101 Crusher

The SEM EMP1000-HS is a compact, portable, and powerful electromagnetic degausser that erases the highest coercivity magnetic media available today without the use of any adapters for onsite erasure and declassification. The Model EMP1000-HS degausser has been evaluated by the NSA and is listed on the NSA EPL for Magnetic Degaussers erasing data on 5,000 Oe longitudinal and perpendicular recorded disk drives and 3,000 Oe for tape media (includes LTO8 tape). Learn more by watching a video here.

Pair this with the SEM Model 0101 shown above and you have a good destruction solution.

BEST

Combine the EMP1000-HS NSA listed degausser with the Model 0101 NSA listed crusher and the iWitness end-of-life documentation tool for a Degauss, Destroy and Document Bundle to completely eliminate high security data from magnetic media in accordance with NSA and DoD guidelines.

The added iWitness will allow for documentation of the destruction process, pairing with the EMP1000-HS that has a built in verification system that works out of the box with the iWitness.

If you need to destroy hard drives, laptops, phones or any other type of electronic media, SEM has a solution to meet a wide variety of budgets. For more information on contact us today!

HDD vs. SSD for Data Storage: Which is Better?

September 3, 2019 at 3:04 pm by Paul Falcone

Technology is advancing, and life as we know it is becoming more and more digital. As a result, data storage is a vital part of everyday life. The question is raised whether a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid state drive (SSD) is better for data storage. Both have their benefits, but which one is truly better to use?

HDDs

Hard disk drives are data storage devices that store data via magnetic storage, which uses platters to store and retrieve data. HDDs store the data on rotating disks coated with magnetic material. The data is stored and retrieved by actuator arms, which read or write data on the platters. HDDs have the advantage of being cheaper and storing more data; however, they are slower than SSDs, and they are susceptible to magnets, which could cause a loss of data.For destruction, HDDs are physically destroyed either by shredding or crushing. Crushing applies force to the drive chassis, which renders the internal platters and the read/write heads irrecoverable. For shredding, the device uses cutting edges to rip the drive apart, and disposes of it by shredding it to pieces. Shredders are faster and better to use in bulk, but crushers are equally effective for small amounts of dead drives. For even more protection, HDDs should be degaussed prior to physical destruction. Degaussers work by subjecting magnetic media to a strong magnetic field that removes data from data bearing surfaces. The magnetic field can be created either by powerful magnets or an electromagnetic discharge. For classified HDD media disposal, the National Security Agency (NSA) requires a two-step process of degaussing followed by physical destruction in either an NSA listed crusher or NSA approved shredder.

SSDs

Solid state drives use integrated circuits to store data. In layman’s terms, the data, rather than being on a disk and having to be found by a read/write head, is instead stored in cells and can be accessed instantly. SSDs have the advantage of providing quicker access to data, which in turn makes the computer run faster. Furthermore, unlike HDDs, they are not magnetized, so they are not susceptible to magnets. On the downside, they store less data per drive than HDDS and are also more expensive. Interestingly enough, despite the additional speed of access, an SSD uses less power than an HDD. Also, due to SSDs having fewer moving parts, they have better longevity than their HDD counterparts.Due to the way SSDs store data, they must be destroyed using an SSD-specific destruction device, which creates a smaller final particle size than HDD destruction devices. If even a tiny chip on an SSD is left undamaged, data can be recovered. The NSA requirement for disposal of classified solid state media is a final particle size of 2mm, which is exceedingly small and requires a dedicated, costly device for destruction. For all other applications, from Unclassified to CUI to commercial to PII, a solid state shredder or crusher is perfectly acceptable. As long as each chip is damaged, the data is non-recoverable.

It is important to note that for data stored on either type of drive, the best way to ensure that it is disposed of properly is to have on-site destruction. On-site destruction reduces risk from outside vendors and third parties and allows the data to be monitored and tracked throughout the entire disposal process. SEM’s data destruction devices are available in a variety of sizes and throughputs so that every security-conscious organization has a cost-effective, efficient, and secure option for on-site data destruction.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing between an SSD or HDD, there isn’t really one correct answer. When making the decision, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to store a lot of data, an HDD is the optimal choice. If you are looking for speed, longevity, and better power usage, an SSD is better. Something very important to keep in mind when choosing between disk drive types is that if they are used to store sensitive data, the more cost-effective option is an HDD, as they store more data and are far easier and less expensive to destroy. However, if an SSD is better suited to your application, ensure that an SSD destroyer is on hand for when the drive reaches its end-of-life.

Hard Disk Drives – Types, Sizes and Future Technology

December 21, 2018 at 1:54 pm by SEM

What is a Hard Disk Drive?

A Hard Disk Drive (Commonly referred to as a hard drive or HDD) is a device that stores digital data. It includes rigid platters made from aluminum alloy or glass coated with a magnetic material and housed within a metal case. The data is encoded magnetically and floats on a cushion of air above the platters, to put it simply.

The Many Forms of HDDs

HDDs come in various shapes and sizes. The hard drive suppliers and computer industry refer to them as 1.8”, 2.5” or 3.5” form factor drives. These form factor descriptions refer to the approximate physical diameter size of the platters that are housed within the drive casing and account for over 95% of the drives in use today.

Another way to describe hard drives is by the market segment to which they are designed. You will hear the term desktop, server, enterprise (all 3.5” drives) or mobile drives (2.5” or 1.8”) as a common description.

In order to increase the capacity of data that is stored on a platter, in 2005 the technology of storing information in a longitudinal magnetic recorded (LMR) format was changed to a perpendicular magnetic recorded (PMR) mode. Virtually all new drives purchased today are PMR drives. In order for this method of recording to be accomplished, the disk areal density (known as coercivity) had to increase up to 5,000 Oersted.

Future Drive Technology

Today’s HDDs are based on magnetic media technology with read/write heads that read the stored data that resides on the internal platters. Due to the moving parts on a hard drive, they are all subject to wear and eventual failure. The good news is that most magnetic drives have built-in diagnostics to warn the user of an eventual failure. This gives the user time to back-up the data to help mitigate the loss of any data. Drives based on flash memory are also available. These drives do not have moving parts. These memory drives are particularly important in applications where the movement of the drive itself may cause a head crash and thus a catastrophic failure. They are typically much smaller in size and therefore ideal for smaller devices that require data storage.

Summary

The most commonly used hard drives in today’s computing world are the 3.5”, 2.5” and 1.8” form factor drives based on PMR Technology. They represent over 95% of the drives currently being used in the marketplace.

While industries continue to adopt SSDs as new storage devices, HDDs aren’t going away just yet. So it’s important to know not only how they work, but also how to properly dispose of them. To learn more about HDD data destruction check out some of our products here.

SEM 2 in 1 Crusher for Either HDD or SSD Media

June 13, 2018 at 4:04 pm by SEM

WESTBORO, MA — The SEM Model 0101, an NSA evaluated and listed destruction device for all computer hard drives regardless of their size, format or type, can now be factory configured for dual media destruction of either HDD or SSD media. The Model 0101 Hard Drive Crusher from Security Engineered Machinery has long been the choice of the Federal Government, US Military and Fortune 1000 companies for physical destruction of HDDs.

The SEM Model 0101 Crusher can now be purchased with a factory installed SSD Kit allowing the system to perform dual media destruction of either HDDs or SSDs. The SSD Kit consists of a specially designed hardened steel anvil with 292 piercing spikes, an SSD Wear Plate, and an SSD Press Plate. The large number of spikes on the anvil ensures each data bearing chip is damaged during the operating cycle. Solid State media that can be destroyed include memory sticks and circuit/controller boards found on hard drives, SSD drives, cell phones, tablets and similar devices up to 5.39” x 5.39” (137mm x 137mm).

The Model 0101 with integrated SSD Kit also includes a standard HDD anvil and can be easily exchanged in the field for the destruction of conventional hard drives and other rotational magnetic media.

Offices, hospitals, data centers, and other facilities can destroy confidential/sensitive information in a timely manner in accordance with government regulations and industry standards (HIPAA, FACTA, SOX, PCI DSS, etc.). The Model 0101 also satisfies National Security Agency requirements for physical destruction of rotational drives after they have been degaussed in an NSA-listed degausser.

The unit is compact, portable (22”H x 10”W x 19”D, 105 lbs.), quiet and virtually vibration free. It operates on standard 120V power, international voltages are also available. A safety interlock prevents the unit from functioning while the door is open and is the only crusher on the market that allows hard drives to be crushed with carriers still attached.

ISO 14001 Registered, Security Engineered Machinery, “SEM” is a global supplier of information security solutions and the largest producer of data-destruction equipment in the United States and operates a manufacturing and design facility adjacent to its headquarters in Westboro, Massachusetts. SEM’s full-service engineering department designs custom systems, such as high volume centralized security destruction systems with integrated waste briquetting and evacuation systems in use by the Federal Government and commercial entities. SEM’s areas of expertise include the design and production of destruction equipment for any type of data storage media from paper to hard drives to solid state, where data security and end of life measures are essential.

For more information, contact James T. Norris, Norris & Company, 264 Bodwell Street, Avon, MA 02322 Tel: (508) 510-5626, FAX: (508) 510-4180, E-mail: jim@norrisco.com

Security Engineered Machinery Introduces Enterprise Line of Data Destruction Devices

at 4:03 pm by SEM

Security Engineered Machinery Co., Inc. (SEM), global leader in high security information end-of-life solutions, announced the introduction of a line of hard drive destroyers specifically engineered for enterprise drive destruction. The Enterprise Line, which includes rotational and solid state shredders and a disintegrator, is the first of its kind in the data destruction industry.

“We engineered the Enterprise Line to address the needs of our data center clients,” said Nicholas Cakounes, Executive Vice President of SEM. “The overwhelming client feedback we received expressed an imminent need for data destruction devices that could easily handle the larger, thicker, denser enterprise drives commonly found in data center environments.”

The Enterprise Line includes the compact, quiet Model 0315 hard drive shredder designed for office use, as well as the high-volume Model 0305 and Model 0304 shredders. The 0315 shreds up to 90 enterprise rotational hard disk drives (HDDs) and up to 120 enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) per hour at 1.5” final particle size, whereas the industrial grade 0305 and 0304 destroy up to 800 HDDs/1,200 SSDs and 1,400 HDDs/2,000 SSDs per hour, respectively. All three models are available in multiple configurations to accommodate a variety of user requirements: rotational hard disk drive (HDDs) only, solid state drive (SSD) only, and a combo version that destroys both HDDs and SSDs utilizing separate feed openings and cutting chambers. Final particle size for HDDs ranges from 1.5” to 0.75”, and final particle size for SSDs is 0.375”. All shredders in the new Enterprise Line are noted on the NSA/CSS Evaluated Products List (EPL) for HDD Destruction Devices as an approved solution for the “deformation of magnetic media hard drive platters” and are GDPR, NIST 800-88, SOX, FACTA, HIPAA, FISMA, NAID, and DoD compliant.

In addition to the three shredder models, SEM’s new Enterprise Line includes the Model 2SSD Disintegrator engineered to destroy SSDs to a nominal particle size of 2mm². This newly redesigned machine employs an industrial grade, dual stage cutting system with specially enhanced cutting blades and sizing screens to provide maximum throughput in an office environment. Designed with a custom, steel-insulated sound enclosure for maximum sound control, the 2SSD also features an internal carbon-based pre-filter and HEPA air filtration system for operator safety as well as odor and dust control. Click for video.

“After pilot testing the devices with our existing Fortune 50 data center clients, we realized that the Enterprise Line provides the ideal solution to organizations looking to safeguard privacy and mitigate risk in the data center and beyond,” added Andrew Kelleher, President of SEM. “In addition to data centers, security-focused organizations such as the federal government, healthcare providers, and financial institutions are facing increased compliance requirements in parallel with more frequent use of enterprise drives into their data centers. The problem becomes what to do with the drives at end-of-life to maintain privacy and compliance — we are providing that solution.”

All devices in the Enterprise Line are specifically designed for enterprise drive destruction with increased torque, industrial grade construction, and more rugged cutting heads, enabling the system to cut through multiple steel plates, carriers, and other enterprise drive constructed components such as heat sinks and cooling tubes.

What to Do with Drives Returned to Data Server Builders

January 6, 2018 at 2:48 pm by SEM

In a recent meeting with a company that builds custom data servers, they had a dilemma. What to do with the hard drives that contain data when a customer returns a failed server for a factory repair?

Each of their servers can have anywhere from 2-8 drives in them. They had been using an outside destruction service to come and destroy the returned drives once they were finished with them, but they were starting to get the feeling that this was not the most secure process and figured there had to be a more secure way. So their question to me was “What is the most responsible way to destroy their customers returned to factory hard drives?”

They wanted me to provide them some suggestions of different ways to destroy their media. In the Government, there are very specific guidelines on how to effectively eliminate data on virtually all forms of media, from paper to hard drives. However, in the commercial world, guidelines are more by industry, and not always exact. As such, here are a few suggestions for the commercial businesses on ways to effectively eliminate data on failed HDDs.

DEGAUSSING is the most effective method of erasing data on magnetic media like HDDs and data tapes. If you are trying to erase unclassified (CUI) or sensitive data, The SEM EMP1000-HS is a powerful commercially sold degausser with a power at 16,000 gauss (1.6 Tesla), erasing the highest coercivity magnetic media available today without the use of any adapters.

If you have drives that have classified data the SEM EMP1000-HS will also take care of those. This unit has been evaluated by the NSA for classified information erasure. When degaussing with this solution, you are ensured that all the data has been erased in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the National Security Agency. Note that classified data will also have to be physically destroyed, as discussed in this next section.

PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION is another method of destroying HDDs. While data is not erased, the drive itself is physically damaged making it inoperable. The SEM 0101 Hard Drive Crusher is an entry level device that bends and punches a hole into the drive. It can destroy standard HDDs and up to six laptop drives in one 8 second cycle.

Whitaker-crusher-HSM-crusher-Garner-crusher — SEM Model 0101

A level up from that for physical destruction would be an SEM HDD shredder like the SEM Model 0300 HDD Shredder. This machine shreds the drive down to a particle of 1.5 providing a higher level of security. These methods physically destroy the media making them inoperable.

So if you have drives returned to a site that need to be destroyed, consider using equipment to do it right in house. At SEM, we’re here to help with any volume, budget, or location and we’re just a click away! Contact us today to learn what solutions would be best for your company to keep your data and your customers data safe and secure.

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Tag: HDD destruction