Green Delete Promises Faster On-Site Data Sanitization

Greg Reuter, chief technology officer of Green Delete, Chicago, says his company’s proprietary technology enables it to sanitize hard drives at client locations more quickly, using a smaller footprint than other data sanitization methods.

“Our mindset has always questioned conventional offering that move data prior to the eradication process,” Reuter says of his company’s on-site sanitation method. He says Green Delete provides the customer with more control over the IT asset disposition (ITAD) process and removes the potential risk of a data breach when devices are transported prior to data sanitization.

“The security of the data is what is most important,” he adds. “The concept of addressing data where it resides seems simple enough, yet most solutions on the market today fail to make it easy on the customer or the firm providing information technology asset disposition services.”

Green Delete works directly with enterprise clients as well as with OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and ITAD service providers to offer high-volume, on-site data sanitization.

The company's process involves a portable system that fits into a large suitcase and is capable of wiping data from large quantities of hard drives at once without the need for a working host computer, Reuter says. Because the company's technology does not need to access a client’s network, it eliminates internal security and bandwidth issues, according to Green Delete.

Green Delete’s process includes a quality-control step, and its technology documents chain of custody and provides detailed reports on all of the devices sanitized for a client, he adds. “We pride ourselves on our disposition report being legally defendable,” Reuter says. Green Delete’s reporting system captures detailed information about the devices being serviced as well as whether the process executed correctly in light of the health of the hard drive, the company says.

Green Delete is currently working on a plan to make its services available to individual consumers who may have stored data-containing devices in their garages or basements as a way to lessen the possible data risks, Reuter says. “We are in discussions with some large clients that deal with consumer electronics,” he adds.

The company was recently certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) to provide on-site data sanitization. Green Delete also helped NAID create its on-site certification standards to meet the changing needs and regulations in the data eradication marketplace, Reuter says.

Bob Johnson, CEO of NAID, says, “We were lucky to have had a firm with the integrity and dedication of Green Delete to help us develop those standards for on-site computer sanitization.”

Green Delete says the NAID certification process has proven its technology to be up to eight times faster than conventional software-based three-pass overwriting.

Additionally, Reuter and Senior Project Manager Avery Sullivan are among 100 people who have earned the NAID Certified Secure Destruction Specialist (CSDS) accreditation.