Properly Disposing of Printed Materials

This page contains information about how to dispose of printed material containing sensitive data.

Introduction

While the majority of time devoted to securing sensitive data focuses on online issues and social engineering techniques, many people lose sight of the fact that physical copies of sensitive data are in many ways easier to lose than data stolen online. Many online hacks will leave a trail for a security investigator to follow, but when a paper copy goes missing, it is much harder to track. For that reason, it is vital that any physical copies of sensitive data, whether it is a print out, information burned to a backup CD, or files on a USB portable drive, are securely destroyed. There are numerous cases of sensitive data being stolen straight from dumpsters because the people throwing out the paper copies, for example, did not shred the copies.

What Materials Need to be Securely Destroyed

If you stored sensitive data on any of the following physical items that you are no longer using, you need to make sure to either shred the item in the case of paper or burnable media, or you need to securely erase the drives. For help with securely surplusing a hard drive or a USB drive, please talk to your department's IT Staff.

  • USB Drives
  • Paper Copies
  • Burned CDs and DVDs
  • Hard Drives

 

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