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January 19, 2007, 04:18 PM ET
Where Do All the Old Computers Go?
An impressively detailed article in the Oregon Daily Emerald examines how the University of Oregon and Oregon State University dispose of old computers, and comes to the conclusion that there’s more than one way to get rid of a creaky machine.
Some of the universities’ outdated hardware is simply passed from one department to another. Other machines are auctioned by state officials, hawked on Internet auction sites, or sold in campus stores. Broken computers are stripped of lead and other hazardous materials before being hauled away.
This is all pretty standard stuff, but it raises an important question: Who’s in charge of scrubbing old machines of sensitive data? The State of Oregon’s State and Federal Surplus Property office cleans up the computers that it ends up selling, but in many other cases, the Emerald reports, that task falls to various college departments. Who scrubs the hard drives at your institution? —Brock Read
Categories: Leadership, Security
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