Data Destruction Policies


Data destruction policies state how data must be destroyed when it reaches the end of its life cycle.

  • Organizations must destroy paper and electronic data when it is no longer needed
  • For electronic data, this means destroying it in primary and backup storage systems
  • influenced by federal and state laws
  • to create data retention and destruction policies:
    • must know how its IT resources work
    • must know what data is stored
    • must know how to retrieve that data
    • must know how to remove data

Elements

  • Identify data ready for destruction
  • Specify proper destruction methods for different kinds of data or storage media
  • Provide validation procedures to make sure data is properly destroyed
  • Provide consequences for improper destruction