Hipaa

Have the opportunity to get some medical clients but I'm afraid of running up against HIPAA regulations regarding secure data destruction. I don't have the ability to magnetically erase the drives and my hammer action would probably not pass muster. I'm not sure I would trust a wipe anyway and would prefer mechanical destruction.

Do any of the buyers on the forum (or elsewhere) have the ability to assure destruction within these guidelines and to provide documentation of such? For free or for a small amount? One IT guy I talked to wanted $80 an hour to magnetically erase the drives. I don't want to take any chances with civil or criminal penalties. Thanks.

have you offered to return the HD platters to the customer for their own storage/destruction. i have a bunch of people who will pull the drives before giving me their equipement, or will allow me to return their platters to them the moment they voice concern. i explain that i strip the drives and wipe them with a magnet before drilling or shattering them, but some people would rather have their info back, to stick in a drawer and feel safe about it

Originally Posted by Filthy

have you offered to return the HD platters to the customer for their own storage/destruction. i have a bunch of people who will pull the drives before giving me their equipement, or will allow me to return their platters to them the moment they voice concern. i explain that i strip the drives and wipe them with a magnet before drilling or shattering them, but some people would rather have their info back, to stick in a drawer and feel safe about it

That's a good idea and it would be useful in other circumstances but this person just wants the junk gone and wants to know it won't bite him later.

if you can shatter the disks well enough, they will be unrecoverable. offer him a cert of distruction and set them aside until you have them all together and can shred them and mix them together in one lot.

you can photograph the process of destruction by taking staged photos of each step in the process.

step one, serial numbers
step two, covers removed
step three platters pulled
step 4 platters drilled
etc...

and send that along with the CoD for signature

Where would I shred them? One of the yards here for sure doesn't have a shredder and I don't think the other one does either since they truck everything out to a bigger yard down the river.

Would a chipper shredder mulch platters? Also, I heard somewhere that the chips on the hard drive boards retain some information. Does anyone know if that is true?

Originally Posted by olddude

i RUN MINE THROUGH THE SHREDDER. newer ones ya wont have to worry about, they are glass

What kind of shredder?

a paper shredder rated for credit cards and cdroms... you know, one of the industrial strength ones... or else just smash them to pieces with a hammer. or you could drill the platters and then smash them.

or melt them. doesnt gill do cast AL alloy work?

Originally Posted by Filthy

a paper shredde for credit cards and cdroms... you know, one of the industrial strength ones... or else just smash them to pieces with a hammer. or you could drill the platters and then smash them.

or melt them. doesnt gill do cast AL alloy work?

I'm wondering if doctor's offices would think that this was secure enough. Has anyone marketed these destruction methods to them? Also, does anyone know if this will meet the federal requirements?

Al melts very easily with propane. I use a turkey cooker type burner to heat up Al/Cu heat sinks to seperate the Cu from the Al. While using the burner I noticed the thin Al melted quickly. I have yet to try this on the Platters from hard drives I just havent gotten around to it. When I do I will take pictures. Mike.

Originally Posted by AuburnEwaste

HIPAA guidelines are pretty much saying that the only way to be 100% compliant is to completely shred the drives. I would not mess around with stuff like this unless you are **** sure you can destroy them properly.

Yep, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Do you mean the whole hard drive or just the disc/platter part?

Originally Posted by ResourcefulRecycling

I am looking for something that i can put a whole hard drive in and shred it. On location. Might have to build something.

I've seen videos of that (on youtube I think) but I believe those shredders are very expensive.