All Rice purchased devices (computers, hard drives, flash drives, printers, etc) capable of storing information must be purged of all information (user data, software licensed to the university, etc) before the transfer of ownership. Rice University uses several procedures to clean information from these devices.

Anyone using cloud-based services for Rice business must also ensure that all Rice data has been recovered and/or securely destroyed when that service is no longer in use or has a pending contract termination.

There are many software applications that can shred specific files if needed. Some popular offerings are:

Eraser
Secure Eraser
WipeFile
TweakNow Securedelete
Harddisk Scrubber
BitKiller

The OIT Help Desk can provide guidance on how best to remove data depending on the device. Cloud service owners should consult their contract terms of service for disposal process validation and requirements or contact the service provider for details. Devices valued over $5,000.00 should follow University Policy 809-03, Property Control, Responsibility and Procedures.

If you have a device that needs to be cleaned, contact the Information Security Office via the OIT Help Desk.