German Technical Inspection Agency (TÜV) certifies data erasing process offered by CHG-MERIDIAN

“Discarded hard drives are a great source of sensitive data“, Michael Krause says. “Credit card numbers, bank account data, patient information, internal calculations, construction plans, secret file notes – many companies and authorities still handle their data without care.“

And Michael Krause knows what he is talking about. For six years now the 29-year-old has worked as an expert in data erasing, processing and logistics for the IT service provider CHG-MERIDIAN.

CHG-MERIDIAN is the first German company able to offer a secure and completely TÜV approved and certified data erasing process to their customers. The TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH, a company of the TÜV NORD GROUP, classified this process as a “trusted process”.

This absolutely new and unique data erasing procedure starts with the gathering of the machines through specially trained staff on-site. After that the PCs and Notebooks are delivered in a secure container to the CHG-MERIDIAN brokerage and logistics centre in Mörfelden, Frankfurt.

“That is how we ensure that no data gets lost during the delivery process“, Michael Krause explains.

When the delivery arrives in Mörfelden, authorised members of staff bring the old equipment to a biometrically secured area. The IT experts at CHG-MERIDIAN then install special network cards, which connect the used devices through a separate network to a security server. This server operates the whole data erasing process and creates a log.

The real data erasing process then starts: The hard drives are partitioned, formatted and then overwritten seven times with a special program. Alfred Korbmacher, the head of the brokerage and logistics centre in Mörfelden and chief developer of the “process of secure data erasing“ (“Prozess Sichere Datenlöschung“), which is the official description of the procedure, points out that three overwrite cycles are enough to delete all information on a hard drive irrecoverably. With seven cycles the CHG-MERIDIAN process fulfils even the high standards of the US Department of Defense and the German Federal Office of IT Security (Bundesamts für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik).

The complex deleting process takes between six and 24 hours, depending on the size of the disc. The results are flawless and the hard drive is functional. They  can then be sold unscrupulously. “The data can not be reconstructed with today’s technology“, Alfred Korbmacher says.

The discs always get checked during the highly complex deleting process. “Broken hard drives are a high risk, because often you can not delete them completely“, Michael Krause explains. The security server immediately raises an alarm, as soon as a damaged hard drive is detected. If that happens, the disc directly goes into the degausser, a special machine which demagnetises the hard drives with a powerful magnetic field.

The whole deleting process is logged – from the appraisal at the customer’s desk to the final check of the deleted volume. Every customer receives a copy of that log and a written certification of the secure data deleting procedure.

CHG-MERIDIAN started developing this unique data erasing process in 2001. In 2005 they first cooperated with the TÜV Informationstechnik GmbH (TÜViT) and together they created the “trusted process“ of data erasing in November 2006, including the sub-processes of the gathering of hardware, the secure delivery to the CHG-MERIDIAN, the data erasing itself and the feedback to the customer. The procedure was certified in December 2006.

About the CHG-MERIDIAN Group
The CHG-MERIDIAN Group is one of Europe's leading non-captive providers of financial solutions and services in the field of information and communications technologies. Established in 1979, it offers its clients a fully comprehensive IT infrastructure service – from the planning and finance stages via the procurement process and installation to the collection and remarketing of equipment in the company's dedicated brokerage centre. The independence and in-depth expertise of CHG-MERIDIAN's staff ensure that each client receives the best-possible customised service.

In 2005 the company's 370 employees generated lease origination totalling € 604 million. The CHG-MERIDIAN Group had total leased assets under management worth € 2.1 billion (at cost) on 31 December 2005.

The CHG-MERIDIAN Group operates in 14 European countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia.