The Government Accountability Office‘s inspector general has determined that GAO “effectively” implemented policies and procedures to remove sensitive data from information technology devices that were slated for disposal.GAO said Wednesday the inspector general assessed GAO’s compliance with media sanitization policies to verify whether laptops and BlackBerry devices were appropriately sanitized before being discarded.
The report stated IT devices require special handling and controls to mitigate unauthorized access, use or disclosure of sensitive data such as personally identifiable information.
GAO noted electronic media should be tracked and secured then permanently deleted to ensure an effective disposal process.
