Recycling business in the big Data age

Everyone's computer may have some sensitive data, processing a little careless, trouble will ensue. This is especially true for some companies, such as research and development centers, government departments and thousands of computer hard drives. How do you guarantee data security on your hard disk when you eliminate these old computers?

Miao One Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Miao Yi Technology") founder Majian told reporters: "We usually feel that the data on the hard disk deleted or formatted is safe, in fact, if you encounter data recovery professionals or malicious people can easily recover data. ”

Whose cheese?

The so-called destruction of data means that the computer or equipment must completely remove all its data before disposal, resale or donation, so as not to cause information leakage. This step is especially important for data with confidentiality and privacy. Because, in the format or deletion of the situation, in fact, the old data is not really deleted, but in the file system is made a special identification, with the help of professional tools can easily find the directory of files, and then restore the original data.

Miao one science and technology mainly executes three kinds of data destruction method: The first kind is uses the software to destroy. The advantage is that after the destruction of the hard disk can be used again, the disadvantage is a long time, generally more than 1 hours, if the hard disk capacity, such as more than 300G hard drive, it takes three hours to destroy, but also need to monitor the whole process of tracking destruction progress.

The second is the use of degaussing machine. The advantage is fast, 40 seconds to destroy 2 block capacity in 2T below the hard disk, the disadvantage is that the data destroyed, hard disk can not be used again, and with the naked eye can not see the difference before and after destruction.

The third is physical meltdown. Put the hard drive in a seventy or eighty kg furnace, the temperature of the furnace can rise to more than 1000 degrees Celsius in an instant. Compared to the previous two, its advantage is absolute security, the disadvantage is to carry inconvenience, not conducive to door-to-door service, destruction speed can be done 20 minutes melted 5-10 hard drive. After melting, the hard drive becomes a dough-like soft substance.

"The advantage of physical meltdown is that the owner can see the hard drive completely deformed, psychologically feel steadfast." The use of degaussing machine, the naked eye can not see the difference between the degaussing, the current use of more is degaussing machine, "Majian said," French power companies in China have nuclear power plant projects, their hard disk data security level is very high, we provide door-to-door service, with degaussing machine to help the company destroy hard disk data ”

The need for data destruction came first from the military, and until today, the most robust data destruction demand remains military units such as troops. The computers to be eliminated by these institutions often involve state secrets, which are generally funded by the state and are destroyed by the State secrecy authority. Majian said: "Our clients are mainly from foreign and listed companies, small companies do not pay attention to confidentiality issues." ”

As early as 2007, Majian began to focus on data destruction. Majian told reporters: "Before I worked in Dell, in the sale of computers found that customers have this demand." Just started to give customers help, and later found that the business volume is larger, the need for full commitment. So I registered the company in 2009, organizing the team to do data destruction business. ”

Market driving force

"We did data destruction on the 1209 hard drives of Chinahr in October 2012, which were stored on more than 300 servers," he said. "Majian said.

Chinahr's computer hard disk contains a large number of resumes, including the name of the job seeker, contact information, address, working background and other privacy data, if not done data destruction, privacy and sensitive data is likely to be used by others, to bring bad impact on job seekers. When the computer is eliminated, the data needs to be destroyed to ensure that a large amount of privacy information does not fall into the hands of others.

At present, a growing number of companies are beginning to realize the importance of data security issues, mainly from three aspects of the driving force. The first driving force is ISO27001 Information Security management System certification. Majian said: "Some market research companies, software development companies and medical companies, must have ISO27001 certification, the standard requires the company in the elimination of hard disk, must be in some way to clear the data." ”

Britain has done a statistic, 80% of the loss of information materials related to human factors. Therefore, the prevention of information risk caused by human factors becomes the main control object of information security. From the current certification of enterprises to see, more are telecommunications, insurance, banking, data processing centers, IC manufacturing and software outsourcing and other industries.

"If these companies are to be certified, we need to produce a data destruction report that the data has been destroyed." If we are recovered by others, we will take legal responsibility. "Majian said.

The second driver is the company's privacy policy. With the intellectual property disputes and the increase of civil litigation cases caused by data leakage, excellent IT companies will require the data destruction in the end of the hardware lifecycle, and have a reasonable account for consumers and users.

"There are a lot of people selling data now," Majian said. For example, if you buy Fang, buy a car, have dealings with an intermediary company, you will receive 10 spam messages a week later. ”

In the first half of 2011 alone, Chinese mobile phone users received an average of 13 spam messages a week, and spam messages accounted for 27.3% of all messages, a survey showed. In addition to a large number of advertising information, lottery fraud, fake bank fraud, illegal sale of bills and other suspected illegal spam messages are also quite a lot.

"Many of the information that is being resold by intermediaries is recovered from the hard drive," he said. Now eliminated more is the 80G capacity of the hard disk, from the point of view of the residual value of the hard disk, it is only worth 50 yuan, but if from the point of view of recovery data, in the market can sell to 300 yuan. "Majian said.

This is an underground industrial chain. Usually the hard disk will have a large number of contact information, such as data, waste recycling personnel from the customer's hands to buy the user out of the computer, and then pay people to do data recovery, and then from the recovered data sorted out contact way to the intermediary company, finally intermediary company through the SMS transmitter, Send a variety of spam messages containing advertising messages to consumers.

There is a privacy statement bar underneath many companies ' websites that will write about how the company uses the privacy data provided by consumers and how to share it with third-party companies. E-commerce sites, for example, usually contain a huge amount of consumer information, including contact details and bank card numbers are stored on the Web server. Majian said: "These servers to the End-of-life period, is to test the company's privacy policy enforcement efforts." Selling the hard drive can get a bit of residual value, and destroying the data will reduce the residual value of the return, the fish and bear cake cannot have. Companies that strictly enforce privacy policies are respectable companies. ”

The third driver is a growing number of executives who realise that data destruction is a way to build a company's reputation. "Even if no one told me, no one asked me what to do, as long as the user left a personal trace of privacy, I will consciously delete, which maintains the corporate brand and social reputation," Majian said, "For those who care about reputation and brand of senior executives, he will find a professional company for data destruction. ”

The prospect of "reuse"

"Data destruction is our starting point in 2012 to focus on the business, has probably destroyed more than 2000 pieces, basic computer hard disk." HDD Mobile terminals can also be data destruction, for example, because of the storage capacity of the computer hard disk, so as long as the degaussing machine in 30 seconds to complete data destruction. "Majian said.

People are used to putting unused items on the shelf, which is actually a waste of resources. If all items can be disposed of in a timely manner, whether through reuse or recycling and disposal, then a large number of resources used to produce new products can be saved. If people can dispose of idle goods in time, a large number of inexpensive second-hand goods will circulate and regain a longer life cycle, the creation of new greenhouse gases will be contained.

Majian said: "After the data is destroyed, the computer does not have the security hidden trouble." We can buy the computer back, clean, upgrade and repair, and then resell to SME customers, in the North Canton City, there are many migrant workers and low-income groups, in addition, many college students will choose to buy second-hand computers. ”

China's renewable resources group accounted for 50% of the domestic recycling market, with a turnover of 150 billion yuan in 2011. In other words, the total value of China's domestic recycling market is 300 billion yuan. Suppose in this 300 billion yuan recycling market, electronic products accounted for only 10%, that is 30 billion yuan, then this is the IT equipment asset disposal market capacity. If 10% of companies have data security awareness and need to do data destruction, then the market size of data destruction is 3 billion yuan. "In the United States and Japan, if the company is to eliminate 100 computers, to find suppliers to collect the cost of home recycling, an average of 20 dollars, the supplier will pull the computer away in an environmentally friendly way to dispose of." Foreign waste computer assets do not charge, but the data must be destroyed. "Majian said.

The value of the computer after recycling is the reuse of parts, such as power supply, memory, etc. Reuse concept is also a part of the 3R concept, the so-called 3R refers to reuse (reuse), reduce (reducing raw materials), recycle (goods recycling). In Majian's view, reuse should be a priority, since the production of a new product produces more carbon emissions than recycled carbon emissions and consumes energy. If no longer available, carbon emissions should be minimized.

Majian said: "In my opinion, if the computer can reuse the best or reuse, crushing is just a helpless move." ”