Degausser

Hardware

In 2005, the CSUSB Information Security Office purchased a Verity Systems SV91M degausser to be used by the campus in facilitating the removal of non-public information on media intended to be transferred or discarded.

Members of the CSUSB campus community may make an appointment to use the degausser through the Information Security Office.

Spring Clean 2006

During our first extensive use of the degausser, CSUSB was able to degauss over 120 pieces of magnetic media.

The thermal switch didn't hold out quite as long as we'd hoped. In the end, we could use the degausser for about 5-10 minutes, wait 10 minutes for it to cool off, then degauss again. From a cold start, the degausser stays on long enough to degauss about 11 hard disk drives or about 25 cassettes. The record for the day was 77 cassette tapes in one hour.

Degaussing HDDs tends to draw a crowd. It is quite loud and it is entertaining to see whomever is degaussing trying to keep a grip on the hard drive in the fluctuating magnetic field.

Be sure to check out the picture of discarded media to visualize the amount of tapes and HDDs possibly containing SSNs, CC#, and other non-pubic information that were sanitized in four graceful passes over the degausser.