SmartErase drives reburn used optical media for security

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 12 November 2008 08:51

Opinion and Analysis

How do you dispose of used writable CDs and DVDs? Bend them in half? Run them through the shredder? Philips and Lite-On Digital Solutions (PLDS) thinks it's found a better way.

Individuals and organisations are increasingly aware of the need to dispose of information in a secure manner. This may involve shredding utility bills to reduce the chance of identity theft, or physically destroying hard drive platters before computers are scrapped or sold.

But what about writeable optical media? Such discs are often used to transport or back-up sensitive data. Shredding or breaking the disc is a bit of a pain.

A new series of 22x DVD burners from PLDS have an innovative feature called SmartErase that renders a disc unusable.

Used in conjunction with the bundled Nero 7 Essentials software, the iHAP322 and related drives can carry out a quick erase that obliterates the lead-in area and first track, making the disc unusable by conventional software.

Alternatively, the entire surface can be overwritten to prevent the use of data recovery software to retrieve any information from the disc.

SmartErase works with CD-R and DVD+/-R media, including dual-layer.

But how secure is it? Please read on.