Our method for destroying them is to delete the files on the drives,
FWIW this is not a safe method of deleting the data. You should at least overwrite the full disk with zeroes or random data once. I appreciate the devices are being 'recycled' after anyway, but deleting the files in this manner provides no benefit so should either be skipped or done differently.
I'm aware it's not a safe method of deleting the data. Unfortunately, it's the method that corporate wants us to use, and so it's the method I must use. We don't have a program (nor the ability to install a program) that will overwrite the disk to make the files unrecoverable.
Considering the files on the disks were mostly essays for for the local university students, pictures found on the internet to make vision boards of, and similar inconsequential stuff (I work at an office supply store, the flash drives that people forget often don't have a ton of important stuff on them). If there had been a sensitive file on the flash drive, I would have brought it to my manager and told him that our method for 'destroying' them wasn't secure enough, point out why, and try to liaise with our loss prevention district manager.
We don't have a program (nor the ability to install a program) that will overwrite the disk to make the files unrecoverable.
I assume this means you don't have admin rights, but there's the built-in cipher command that can wipe free space on a drive. I just tried command with the /w switch using a command line without administrator rights, and it seemed to be working.
I don't have command line access on any of the store computers. I can't even pull up the run window with win-r to then try to get command line access. The only reason we have access to the start menu (which allows me to reach programs they don't think I need like notepad or the snipping tool) is so that if we call in to help desk, they can remotely log out as a store employee and log back in as a help desk employee.
But....now that I think about it, I do have a variety of display computers that aren't as locked as the store computers are. I've got a pile of flash drives that were just thrown into the safe without dates on them that I'll have to destroy on the first of the year, I'll talk to my assistant manager about it before then. It's probably against loss prevention standards to plug any customer's flash drives into non-store computers.
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u/isdnpro Dec 19 '19
FWIW this is not a safe method of deleting the data. You should at least overwrite the full disk with zeroes or random data once. I appreciate the devices are being 'recycled' after anyway, but deleting the files in this manner provides no benefit so should either be skipped or done differently.