Comments for "Securely erasing tapes"

[fredmaine]

In regards to thread504-1499760

When I was in the broadcast industry we had tape erasers, huge electromagnets essentially. I'm sure they must still be available.

A few swipes by the eraser and there was nothing intelligent on the tapes any longer. Just wondered if that qualifies as secure. After the magnetic patterns are gone there can't be anything for a machine to read.

Also, one place I deal with, since they intended to toss the tapes in the dumpster, just put each into a drill press and drilled a big hole through the tape (not the center) which essentially shredded the tape into 4" strips. The assumption is you couldn't put it back together well enough to read anything from it.

Fred

 

[TekAndy]

Yea, erasers "de-gausers" are still available. You can even get them strong enough to wipe out disk drives. There are companies that securly erase tapes so they can be used again, or re-sold. Depeding on what type of data you have, there may be certain laws that determine how you handle your media.

Andy