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The Naval Surface Warfare Center at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico has—literally—tons of IT hardware and equipment used for classified programs that need to be destroyed by the most secure and irreversible means.
While White Sands Missile Range is an Army facility, NAVSEA researchers have a detachment there working on "land-based weapons system testing, directed energy weapons testing"—lasers—"and research rocket launch support," according to their webpage. Those researchers have on hand some 4,000 pounds of IT equipment, including magnetic, optical and solid-state storage devices with highly sensitive, classified data.
The center issued a solicitation for destruction services that specifically calls for all designated equipment to be burned "to ash."
The information stored on these devices is highly sensitive, as evidenced by the physical security requirements set forth in the solicitation. The incineration facility must have "at the minimum, secure entry, 24-hour armed guards and 24/7 camera surveillance with recordable date and time capabilities."
https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2019/02/navy-needs-2-tons-storage-devices-burned-ash/154629/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 12 2019, @08:35PM
I can't believe this is a new problem. Surely there must be a facility under some *other* Federal agency that meets their spec. I worked briefly for a contractor and the phrase "burn bag" for stuff that needed to be disposed was in our parlance. The bag probably wasn't under armed guard, or the facility but it seems like you could have a few uniformed personnel follow the materials to meet that part of the spec.