Imaging and Erasure
Cloud2Networks Services’ digital forensics service requires exact, bitstream copies of hard drives or other digital storage media to meet the high standards of evidence authentication in court cases. Businesses use our exceptional imaging capabilities for system provisioning or re-imaging as well with 100% confidence.
We also perform erasure for re-imaging, re-use or security purposes to any level required including the most demanding Dept. of Defense standards.
“Two sides of the same coin. Preserving media by imaging allows for analysis, even if it isn’t a consideration at the moment. It’s a simple safeguard that preserves options for the future. Secure erasure, conversely, ensures that data meant to be discarded stays discarded.”
Uses for Imaging
Besides its use in computer forensics examinations, precise disk imaging is useful for system data backups and in enterprise IT departments for mass installation of identical, approved OS/app distributions for employees’ desktops, laptops or the organization’s web servers.
When complete disk imaging is performed correctly, hard drives are interchangeable, which makes recovery of a system to its last backup state simply a matter of exchanging drives.
Storage Media Erasure
Erasing the data on a hard drive or other storage is accomplished to varying degrees. For instance, the simplest case is when someone deletes a file on their hard drive via the OS. Although the file becomes inaccessible by the user from the OS, typically only the file’s metadata has been altered and the original data is available to other tools.
Even if a deleted file’s data is freed up and overwritten by other programs that does not mean the data is inaccessible in whole or part by sophisticated software. More thorough erasure of data involves overwriting a file multiple times, often using specific bit patterns. The most extreme erasure programs, such as those meeting U.S. Department of Defense 5220-22.M standards also verify that no trace of the data remains.
Reusing Erased Media
A common purpose for secure erasure, however, is to ensure a disk can be re-used without revealing any previously stored data. Properly performed, there is no risk of personally identifiable information or trade secrets being discovered.
Media We Image and Erase
Cloud2Networks Services’ imaging and erasure experts have years of experience and training on all system types and storage devices including mobile devices, such as smartphones, which require specialized procedures to remove user data without harming device functionality.
We regularly erase and/or image all disk technologies, including IDE, SATA, eSATA, USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, SCSI, SAS and RAID arrays. Our service applies specialized software that analyzes disk parameters and disk condition. Techniques such as write synchronization and cache flush are used to effect complete erasure of the media.
Complete Security and Confidentiality
Cloud2Networks Services has invested heavily in state-of-the-art highly secure facilities to protect customer data, which apply to our imaging and erasure services as well. Our compliance with leading privacy and security standards, such as SSAE 16, PCI-DSS and EU-US Privacy Shield, among others, is regularly verified by third-party auditors. We also employ 256-bit encrypted networks to keep data transfers safe.
