VisiShred:
Providing
Visual
Assurance
for Certified
Destruction
By Charles Stuart and Matthew Young
In this article, representatives from NAID
Associate Member-company Secure Data
Ltd. explain how their product and concept
defends compliance in today’s audit-sensitive
regulatory environment.
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The Shortcomings of a Certificate of Destruction
A New Trend of Visually Assured Data Destruction
In the data destruction industry, it is a common practice for
companies to provide their customers with a Certificate of
Destruction upon the destruction of certain assets. For companies
who store highly sensitive and private information on data storing
devices, the Certificate of Destruction can be an important piece of
documentation as it certifies that a customer’s assets were properly
collected and destroyed. However, in the case of an audit or similar
asset investigations, companies storing sensitive data are often
required to provide documentation for the use and destruction
of their data storing devices. When such a situation arises, most
Certificates of Destruction fall short of providing adequate, legal
evidence that a device was properly destroyed.
To bridge the gap between the documentation provided by a
Certificate of Destruction and the substantiated evidence of
destruction required by auditors, data destruction companies have
begun providing their customers with visual evidence of their data
devices as they are destroyed. By providing visual proof along with
a Certificate of Destruction, service providers offer their customers
not only chain-of-custody documentation but also video proof that
those devices were destroyed.
Meanwhile, customers of IT asset disposition companies are
increasingly becoming more security conscious, expressing a
growing concern over the verification of their data destruction
process. According to data released by Iron Mountain, a provider
in storage and information management services, 78% of IT
department managers and 71% of business executives have
indicated being concerned or very concerned when asked about
potential shortcomings in their current IT asset disposition
programs. 74% of the same demographic have indicated avoiding
legal and compliance problems as a primary goal in their IT asset
disposition strategy. It is clear then that today’s customers require
more evidence that their IT asset disposition program meets all
legal and compliance requirements.
Providing visual assurance to customers is a costly endeavor,
adding a whole list of costs that cut into a data destruction
company’s overhead. In addition to the standard costs of a data
destruction service, companies that add visual assurance to their
system must now add in the costs for video equipment, employees
to operate the equipment, a third party witness of the asset
destruction, editing and video processing, and securely providing
such videos to their customers, to name a few. In response to this, Secure Data, Ltd. has developed an integrated
hardware and software platform called VisiShred. The platform
facilitates data destruction within a reliable and cost-effective
system that provides the customers of service providers with
a Visual Assurance of Destruction. The system is designed to
assimilate into the current process of any destruction company,
allowing clients to provide their customers with visual assurance
records without making substantial changes to their daily
operations. Furthermore, VisiShred features a powerful web service
that makes record keeping seamless, efficient, and easy for data
destruction companies and their customers.
continued on page 30
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Pioneering an Innovative Solution
As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to crack an
egg. Likewise, there’s more than one way to shred a drive.
Keeping in mind that not every service provider’s process is the
same, VisiShred is designed to be easily incorporated into the
fundamental steps of any shredding process, allowing companies to
add VisiShred to their offered services without rewriting the script
for their data destruction.
The VisiShred process starts at the moment of device registration.
When a new group of devices are ready for destruction, they are
registered into the VisiShred system as a batch, a unique grouping
of devices labeled by their own unique identification code. The
information for each device, including the device’s serial number, is
recorded either on a computer through a dedicated web portal or
remotely by using the VisiShred app. This can be done by either an
employee of the service provider or by the company’s customers
when authorized.
A unique bar code and serial number are generated each time a
device is registered into the VisiShred system. The bar code and
serial number are then printed onto a label and applied to the
specific device. When all devices in a batch have been labeled, the
batch is shipped to the data destruction facility of a service provider
by using their standard methods for transportation.
Upon arrival at the data destruction facility, the batch and devices
are again scanned to update their status in the web portal, which
verifies that the batch was properly transported. By scanning the
devices at each stage of the data destruction process, VisiShred
allows service providers to offer their customers updates on the
status of their devices in real time.
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Once a batch has been scanned, confirming its arrival to the
facility, it is ready for destruction. In order to incorporate VisiShred
into the shredding process, two pieces of hardware are attached
to a company’s shredder to complete the VisiShred process. The
first component is an automated position-sensing barcode scanner,
placed above the conveyer belt leading into the shredder. The
second device is a high-definition camera, positioned above the
mouth of the shredder at an angle so that it may capture a device
at the moment of destruction.
As each device in a batch is placed onto the conveyer belt, the
position-sensing barcode scanner recognizes each device and
scans the barcode on the device’s label. This scan automatically
updates the status of the device on the web portal indicating that
the device is about to be destroyed. Simultaneously, the scan
also alerts the high-definition camera to start a new recording.
As the device moves along the conveyer belt towards the mouth
of the shredder, the high-definition camera records a video of the
destruction of the device. The VisiShred software automatically
edits the recording into an eight second average video that is then
uploaded onto the VisiShred web portal and made immediately
available for viewing by all relevant parties.
Embracing the Cloud
Through VisiShred, each service provider gains access to his
or her own partner branded web portal. Featuring a powerful
administrative center behind a simplistic design, each web portal
can be tailored to meet any service provider’s custom branding
needs. On the main page of the web portal, service providers can
access all information stored for their customers. Additionally, they
are able to provide their customers with their own access login
credentials, allowing their customers to register batches or access
batch information themselves.
As the command center for the VisiShred system, the web portal
hosts all of the processing data collected on batches and devices
as well as the videos of their destruction. While an eight second
video is provided for each device, a longer video is also available
that displays the destruction of the entire batch. The diverse
processing data collected on devices during the destruction
process allows for a multitude of ways to search, sort, and find
different batches and devices. For example, a customer might need
This scan
automatically updates
the status of the device
on the web portal
indicating that the
device is about to be
destroyed.
continued on page 32
Reliability
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800-843-7512 • sales@americanbaler.com • Bellevue, Ohio
RELIABLE BALERS SINCE 1945
Reliability
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NAIDnews Winter 2016
31
to check on the status of a certain drive and only knows the
drive’s serial number. By searching for the serial number, the
customer would immediately be brought to a page containing
the status of the drive, its batch information, and a video of its
destruction, assuming it had already been destroyed. Likewise,
if a customer was looking for the same drive but only knew
its batch ID, the customer could bring up the total batch and
identify the drive.
In addition to its in depth searching capabilities, the web portal
features a reporting section that is capable of generating
custom reports and statistics for both service providers and
their customers. Among the generated reports, VisiShred also
provides Certificates of Destruction. Also customizable, the
VisiShred Certificate of Destruction certifies that the material
listed on the certificate was received and processed by a client’s
data destruction company. More importantly, listed next to each
device is a direct link to the video of the destruction of the
device.
New Standard in Service in the Digital Era
In the last few decades, advancements in technology have
become widely available at an unprecedented rate. Despite
this growth, the data destruction industry still relies on a
traditional certificate of destruction that has by and large
become outdated. With the growing rate of data breaches
and the tightening requirements of clients and auditors alike,
visual verification systems like VisiShred are allowing service
providers to fully meet the growing needs of their customers
and provide them with reliable service in the digital era.
Think of VisiShred as an enhancement to the data destruction
process. By providing visual assurance along with a Certificate
of Destruction, data destruction centers are able to provide
their customers complete insight into the destruction of
their devices while equipping them with the visual evidence.
Through a program like VisiShred, data destruction centers
can guarantee their customers accurate servicing and record
keeping. Through its chain of custody evidence and compliance
reporting data, VisiShred goes the extra mile to provide not
only documentation but also direct evidence on the destruction
of assets.
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NAIDnews Winter 2016
Commercial Secure Shells allow IT Service Providers
(ITSPs) to send individually secured and identified data
containing devices to Secure Data Ltd. for destruction.