Lifespan has a long heritage of working with research institutions and other experts to help develop best practices and new solutions for its commercial, education, and government customers. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting with experts from the “Center of Storage Device Sanitization Research” at the NSA – just outside the Washington DC area. I wanted to get first hand insight into NSA’s technology standards for data destruction and sanitization technologies.
The NSA campus, located at Ft. Meade Maryland is an awesome landmark of the U.S. intelligence community. Just past the security gate, and in the guest parking lot, you know that you are entering an area that is special and important. Signs abound about prohibiting any photographs of buildings or any structures – other than the spy aircraft or the cryptography museum. The “black glass building”, as it’s been called in many spy novels, was just past the second security checkpoint. I didn’t get to go into that one – my meetings were in the other buildings on campus. I took heed not to take pictures of any buildings, but I did grab a picture of the entrance – hopefully I did not break any rules.
On a humorous note, many of you may have noticed that I always carry around a bulging backpack/briefcase full of wires, laptop computer, iPad tablet, cell phone and other things for my “portable office.” At the second NSA security checkpoint, I was placed under more scrutiny than by the TSA at a commercial airport. I was kindly asked to leave my belongings in my car and told that I could use a notepad – one that consisted of a pen and paper – for my meetings throughout the day.
Even with the intense security and the prohibition on photography, it wasn’t until I passed a museum case with different types of storage devices that I really felt the gravity of the work that this pillar of our government conducts. Among the various media in the case was a melted hard drive that was recovered from the Pentagon in the aftermath of 9/11. The sight of it was sobering to say the least. After my very memorable ½ day of meetings, I learned a lot about NSA’s long standing history and I brought home some practical data privacy solutions that we, as a service provider, can offer to our customers. Lifespan will be sharing my research with you in the coming weeks.
