❓ A WA parliamentary question investigates policies and procedures for secure disposal of photocopier hard drives across various government departments and agencies. The responses reveal varying levels of data security practices, from physical destruction to software wiping and leasing agreements with data erasure clauses.
AnsweredQoN 3196Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
In respect of the Minister’s portfolio responsibilities for any of their departments, agencies, government trading enterprises or boards I ask: (a) Are there any policies or procedures in place for erasing the hard-drives of photocopiers upon their disposal from the agency: (i) If so, what are they and what software is used to erase the hard-drive; and (ii) If not, why not; (b) Could the Minister provide a breakdown (make/model/software operating system) of the photocopiers that are in use (including which are connected to a WLAN, LAN etc. and which are stand-alone) as at: (i) 1 June 2016; (ii) 1 June 2017; and (iii) 1 June 2018; and (c) Are any of the photocopiers in (b)(i)-(iii) used to scan, replicate or print sensitive or confidential information: (i) If so, what type of sensitive or confidential information; and (ii) If so, what measures are put in place to ensure this information is not retained on the hard-drive of the photocopier?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
22 August 2018
Responded by
Minister for Transport; Planning; Lands
Response time
13 days
(a)
Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage
The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage is in the process of developing ICT policies and procedures which will include procedures for erasing the hard drives of photocopiers upon disposal. The department will ensure hard drives in the photocopiers are erased and will obtain a confirmation of destruction from the vendor when disposed of in 2019.
Department of Transport
There are procedures in place to ensure all leased equipment with a hard drive, including photocopiers, complete a three pass wipe upon disposal. The software currently in use is DiskClon 2.0.5.2. Once complete, the Department of Transport is issued with a Certificate of Certified Data Sanitation and Environmental Disposal.
Main Roads Western Australia
All photocopiers have hard drives that are deleted as soon as each process is completed. In addition, all information is encrypted.
Public Transport Authority
The Public Transport Authority uses Ricoh. Ricoh photocopiers use encryption and data overwrite to ensure that data within their storage is secure. When they are disposed of, the machine including the storage is destroyed.
Mid West Ports Authority
Hard drives are physically removed from the photocopiers and destroyed by physical drilling of the HDD plate to render them unserviceable. The hard drives are stored in a storeroom awaiting disposal with an approved agency.
Kimberley Ports Authority
Photocopiers and scanners are purposely configured not to retain information on the hard drives.
Southern Ports Authority
The policy is currently under development.
Pilbara Ports Authority
Pilbara Ports Authority’s photocopier supplier (Scope Business Imaging) follows a customer data removal procedure, which ensures a checklist is followed during the disposal process. This includes an in-built hard disk wipe mechanism. This is activated to perform a hard disk wipe as part of the disposal process.
Fremantle Ports Authority
All devices are leased, and part of the lease refresh is a factory reset on each device which erases all data. There is no software component as the process uses the native firmware of the multifunctional device.
Landcorp
The photocopiers are under a leasing agreement with Fuji Xerox. Once the leasing agreement expires Fuji Xerox commences a decommissioning process that involves firstly, erasing the hard-drives using software ‘Blancco Erasure’ and then, sending the hard-drives to a recycling plant for shredding.
Landgate
Process includes: asset decommission; reclamation transfer or purchase rules decommission checklist; IT decommission and disposal instruction; asset disposal advice form.
Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority
The MRA has a contract in place with its vendor to ensure processes for disposal of photocopiers, that have reached end of life, are returned to the vendor who will destroy the hard drive using secure data destruction services
(b) Refer to Legislative Assembly Question on Notice 3209
(c) Not applicable
Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage
The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage is in the process of developing ICT policies and procedures which will include procedures for erasing the hard drives of photocopiers upon disposal. The department will ensure hard drives in the photocopiers are erased and will obtain a confirmation of destruction from the vendor when disposed of in 2019.
Department of Transport
There are procedures in place to ensure all leased equipment with a hard drive, including photocopiers, complete a three pass wipe upon disposal. The software currently in use is DiskClon 2.0.5.2. Once complete, the Department of Transport is issued with a Certificate of Certified Data Sanitation and Environmental Disposal.
Main Roads Western Australia
All photocopiers have hard drives that are deleted as soon as each process is completed. In addition, all information is encrypted.
Public Transport Authority
The Public Transport Authority uses Ricoh. Ricoh photocopiers use encryption and data overwrite to ensure that data within their storage is secure. When they are disposed of, the machine including the storage is destroyed.
Mid West Ports Authority
Hard drives are physically removed from the photocopiers and destroyed by physical drilling of the HDD plate to render them unserviceable. The hard drives are stored in a storeroom awaiting disposal with an approved agency.
Kimberley Ports Authority
Photocopiers and scanners are purposely configured not to retain information on the hard drives.
Southern Ports Authority
The policy is currently under development.
Pilbara Ports Authority
Pilbara Ports Authority’s photocopier supplier (Scope Business Imaging) follows a customer data removal procedure, which ensures a checklist is followed during the disposal process. This includes an in-built hard disk wipe mechanism. This is activated to perform a hard disk wipe as part of the disposal process.
Fremantle Ports Authority
All devices are leased, and part of the lease refresh is a factory reset on each device which erases all data. There is no software component as the process uses the native firmware of the multifunctional device.
Landcorp
The photocopiers are under a leasing agreement with Fuji Xerox. Once the leasing agreement expires Fuji Xerox commences a decommissioning process that involves firstly, erasing the hard-drives using software ‘Blancco Erasure’ and then, sending the hard-drives to a recycling plant for shredding.
Landgate
Process includes: asset decommission; reclamation transfer or purchase rules decommission checklist; IT decommission and disposal instruction; asset disposal advice form.
Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority
The MRA has a contract in place with its vendor to ensure processes for disposal of photocopiers, that have reached end of life, are returned to the vendor who will destroy the hard drive using secure data destruction services
(b) Refer to Legislative Assembly Question on Notice 3209
(c) Not applicable
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