SANITIZING COMPUTERS

JUNE 23, 2009



CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hello everybody. It is

2 o'clock, and I just wanted to welcome you all. Actually,

we're having a little feedback here, so let me take care of

that, and I'll be back with you in a second.

Oh. We just took care of it. Thank you, Liz.

So welcome. We're really glad that you're with us

today for this webinar.

This is "Sanitizing Computers and Digit Devices."

We're going to be going into great detail about this

subject and hopefully learning a lot from you and also

sharing a lot of information with you about this very

important topic.

First, we're going to give you a little tour of our

webinar system so you have an idea of exactly how this

works.

Basically, we have -- over on the right side of the

screen we have a public chat area. And then right below

that is a little space where you can actually type in

information. And whenever you hit "Enter," it will pop up

into the public chat area.

If you go down to the box right below that, this is

actually a listing of all the folks who are with us today

and who's on board with us. We've got 22 folks on board

with us, and we're very excited about that.

We have somebody -- actually, Kimberly Griffin, who

is our transcriptionist, and she's done a fabulous job in

taking our webinars and making them available, doing the

transcript and all of that, working with Liz Persaud and

Sharon Meek, our web designer, and getting this information

right back up on the Internet on our website.

So we'd welcome you to visit that. It should be

available. We've been pretty quick about this. A couple

of weeks and it's up. And so anyway, that's where you

would find information about that.

You can actually save this if you wanted to -- this

recording for yourself. If you go up to the "File" -- up

to the menu bar at the very top where it says "File" and go

all the way over to "Recording," and you can come down, and

you can actually start recording and save this on your own

hard drive.

So if you need the information before it's actually

up on our website, if you shoot me an e-mail or Liz Persaud

an e-mail, you can actually get us at

carolyn@passitoncenter.org or liz, l-i-z,

@passitoncenter.org. We'll be happy to sent this to you

immediately.

So I'm going to first talk to you about and

formally invite you to join us for the National AT Reuse

Conference, which is going to be in Atlanta, Georgia.

We're very excited to be doing this with our partner,

RESNA. It's a group within RESNA that is called NATTAP.

And it's going to be September 15th through the 17th of

2009. And I'm going to have Liz talk a little bit about

the scholarships that are available.

LIZ PERSAUD: Hey, everyone. This is Liz Persaud

with the Pass It On Center. We are very pleased to

announce that there are scholarships available for anyone

out there looking for some extra funds and some extra

encouragement to attend the conference in September.

Again, it's September 15th through the 17th in Atlanta.

Feel free to get in touch with me. Again, it's

liz@passitoncenter.org. And I would be more than happy to

send you that scholarship form. And before the end of the

week is finished, we will have the conference information

up on the Pass It On Center website along with the

scholarship forms as well too. So feel free just to get in

touch with us if you have any questions.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you, Liz.

We're also going to be having some awards given out

at the conference, which we're very excited about this.

And this will be the first time we've done this. We're

actually going to be recognizing folks who have been

pioneers in the field of AT reuse, visionaries when it

comes to, you know, seeing what needs to happen in the

future when it comes to AT reuse, and then also folks who

have just started up.

And so we're looking at groups who are really big

and groups who are really small and the impact that they're

making in their individual communities. So we'll be

sending information out about those awards.

And we'd love for you to nominate programs that you

think have done a good job. Your own program is fine. I

don't even care if you nominate yourself. No problem.

So anyway, we're going to jump right in with this

topic. Also wanted to let you know, if you'd like to make

a comment to us, make a comment. We'll be reading those.

I see, Mary, you said that the microphone is

cutting out. Is it better now? Can you hear us a little

better now, I hope? And thank you for doing that comment.

We'll actually be reading those and paying

attention to that public-chat area as we're going through

this.

If you actually have a microphone, and you would

like to make a comment, then what you would do is you would

actually hold down your "Control" key, and that will make

it so that your hand is raised, and we'll be aware that you

actually have something that you would like to say.

And so I'll release the mic, and you can say

whatever it is that you would like to say, and then you can

release the mic back by letting go of the "Control" key,

and we'll continue.

So today we're going to be talking about sanitizing

computers and digital devices. And as I said, this

information will be available on the passitoncenter.org

website.

And I hope that you'll go there and visit our

website. We've made a lot of changes, and we've grown that

website quite a bit. And all of this information will also

be in our knowledge base.

And here's the basic agenda.

LIZ PERSAUD: The agenda, of course, Carolyn and I

are doing the introduction, and then Jessica Brodey is

going to jump in and cover some policy and procedures.

We're going to talk a little bit about vocabulary

in the work area and just mention some tools and supplies

that are needed as you're going through your work area and

doing the work that you need to do.

Carolyn is going to jump in on sanitizing a

computer and some peripherals with your computer as well

too.

Then we're going to also talk about sanitizing your

hard drive and wiping all that data. Because that's

something that's extremely important.

We're going to mention a little bit about

sanitizing phones and PDAs because I know that that's

definitely a hot topic out there that folks are looking to

get information on.

And then at the end we've got some information

about the National Cristina Foundation and wanted to

introduce them to y'all and the great work that they're

doing and the collaboration that they'll be doing with the

Pass It On Center and hopefully with all of y'all out there

as well too.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you, Liz.

And, Jessica, I see that you're on. We're really

glad that you're on.

And, Lynn, thank you for the comment. We're

working on the microphone. So that's actually my fault. I

was holding up the microphone.

So basically we want to talk about and introduce

some concepts here.

So, Liz, do you want to address this one?

LIZ PERSAUD: How safe is your computer? A 2004

study conducted by the University of Arizona found that

keyboards and mice have over 400 times as many microbes as

a toilet seat.

So that actually grosses me out as I'm sitting here

telling y'all that. So very, very gross. And a lot of

exposure of different folks touching different computers on

different work environments.

In early 2008, the Center for Disease Control, CDC,

reported that 2007 flu outbreak in the U.S. elementary

schools was actually a result of the kids sharing computers

in the school.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: When we're talking about

sanitizing, we're talking not just about the keyboards and

the mice and monitors and all that. We're also talking

about data.

In 2003, two MIT students actually purchased 158

devices -- I mean disk drives from different locations and

found more than 5,000 credit cards numbers, medical

records, detailed personal and corporate financial

information, several gigabytes' worth of personal e-mails

on those drives.

It was pretty shocking, actually. And so we're

talking about the physical cleaning and then also the data

itself. And so we want you to just be aware of these

things.

Any of you out there who have worked with, you

know, drives, people donating their computers, you're aware

that 158 hard drives, that's not a big deal. You know, we

can get 158 hard drives in a day. Not a big deal to have

that many show up. What is a big deal is all the

information that's on them.

So sanitization. It's a form of cleaning that

removes potentially the harmful substances. Makes it safe

to use that object. This is actually, you know, some

definitions here. Sanitizing computers and peripherals,

digital devices really requires extra care.

Some of the other digital devices that we're

talking about, you know, it could be something like a

smartphone. It could be as simple as, you know, a cell

phone, navigational device, any of those things.

And it's important to pay attention to also where

all those things have been and making sure that we're

actually cleaning them in a way that's safe to -- and

remains -- that the integrity of the equipment remains too.

Data wiping and drive sanitization is also

critical. In computer refurbishing programs, we've got to

develop safe practices. Safe not just for the equipment

but also safe for the individuals that are doing this work.

So our learning objectives. What we're hoping that

you'll learn today is some policies and procedures needed

for your programs, some basic descriptions of appropriate

work areas, and some explanation of safety measures that

you want to take.

We also hope to give you some appropriate tools and

help you select those appropriate tools and supplies and

then also -- and you can get more of this information from

our website -- where you can get information about

documents and demonstrate procedures to sanitize computers

and other components.

So policies and procedures. Very important. And

they're needed to ensure that everybody understands what

has to be done and how it needs to be done.

I'm actually going to turn this part over to

Jessica.

Jessica, are you on with us? I think I saw that

you were here.

JESSICA BRODEY: I'm good to go. And I hope

everyone can hear me through my mic. Let me know through

the chat area if there are any mic issues that I'm having.

And thank you, Carolyn. I'm glad to be here.

I was going to take over and talk a little bit

about policies and procedures. Great.

And as Carolyn started to say, policies and

procedures are needed to ensure that everyone understands

what must be done and how to do it.

And so many people groan and moan about the thought

of really putting policies and procedures about

sanitization in writing. But it's really important because

it also creates a standard to assess compliance with the

right processes. And it's important for educating people

who are coming in.

Also, when you have policies and procedures that

are written up and you have some indication that on a

regular basis your organization follows those policies and

procedures, there's a legal assumption in your favor that

you complied with these stated practices and that any

problems that cropped up due to sanitization were probably

not your fault because you did the best that you could in

accordance with the set of policies and procedures.

So that's another good reason why it's important to

have policies and procedures in effect.

If I could have the next slide, please.

I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to talk a

little bit about how to go about writing policies and

procedures.

Policy is a big-picture statement of goals. For

example, a policy could be, "All computers and digital

devices must be sanitized prior to distribution."

When we encourage you to write your sanitization

policy, here are some things that I believe each

sanitization policy should include: You want to specify

what should be sanitized, when it should be sanitized,

where it should be sanitized, who should be doing the

sanitization, and how.

It can be as simple as just, in your how, refer to

your procedures for sanitization.

And the next slide, please.

Whenever I talk about policies and procedures, I

like to put the policies and procedures in the context of

other things that you're doing. And -- I'm sorry -- the

nuts-and-bolts, step-by-step instructions specifying how to

accomplish the policy.

So while -- we can move on to the next slide.

So while policies go ahead and set your big goal,

procedures really are step-by-step instruction about how to

initiate the cleaning. It's really going to be not just

the goal of getting it all sanitized, but how do I do it?

What supplies do I use? What's the order for covering it?

When we talk about policies and procedures, I like

to put them in the context of all the other policies and

procedures your organization might have.

So the way that I always try and start is from your

table-of-contents view. If you were to have a policies and

procedures book, you're going to have a list of all the

different topics that are being covered.

And one thing might be to start with your

Chapter 1, which is your organizational structure. You

have all the different chapters, and you may have a

Chapter 5, which is about program operations. And all the

way down at 5.6 are your policies and procedures about

sanitization.

You can move on to the next slide.

So when you think about writing policies and

procedures, really try to think about where what you're

working on fits into the bigger picture.

Within 5.6, this is an example of what you might do

for your policies and procedures. And your policy could be

in multiple parts. You can start with a purpose.

We have a copy of a sample document with a

sanitization procedure that has a very good purpose. You

could pick up that purpose and underneath "Sanitization,"

you can say, "The purpose is to make sure that devices are

sanitized to protect against the spread of infection."

That could be your purpose that you start off with.

And then I like to treat everything as an outline.

So if you're all into 5.6, you start with A. "All

computers and digital devices received by a program shall

be sanitized immediately upon receipt and prior to storage

in program facilities."

5.6.B, "All computers and digital devices shall be

sanitized in the sanitization room."

5.6.C, "Only staff members that have been trained

in sanitization may sanitize equipment."

5.6.D, "Sanitized equipment shall be stored in

plastic bags to prevent contamination."

5.6.E, "All equipment that has been in storage

longer than three months shall be sanitized again before

distribution to a consumer."

Now, this is not a sanitization policy that you

would have to adopt. It's an example of the who, what,

when, where that I discussed in the prior slide.

Next slide, please.

We're going to move on to 5.6.F, "Sanitization of

computers and digital devices shall be done in accordance

with Procedure A."

So one thing that you can do when you're trying to

incorporate your procedures and your policies, at the

bottom of your policy list, you can put the specific how,

and you can reference a procedure that's outside and put

that behind or have that in a separate location in the

appendices of your binder of policies and procedures.

Or what you can do is you can list out some of the

information that's in your written procedure. For example:

Step one, "Advance preparation: Prepare a work area (wood

or tile floor) and stock the supplies that will be needed.

The following will be helpful in cleaning computers and

computer devices."

And I took some of the lists that are on our

separate procedure for sanitization that we do have a

sample procedure from.

So again, what's good here is you can use it to put

everything in one place in an outline form, and you can

have your policy, which sets your goals, and then you can

move on to the specific how-to procedures and incorporate

them all together in one place.

Or you could have only your policies in one place

and refer to your procedures that you keep somewhere else

in a different location.

That's really up to what works best for your

program. I often find that it works to combine it all in

one location so that you're not confused and lost and

wondering what your policy is. And then when you get down

to it and it says, "clean according to your procedures,"

you think, "Well, what are our procedures, and where do I

find those?" and have to go running all over.

Next slide, please.

What I think should be included in a good

sanitization procedure. And a sample one that we do have

contains all these things.

I think a purpose is important; the frequency with

which sanitization should be done; any advance preparation

that needs to be done; any rules that apply to your work

area; a list of tools and supplies; and then the very

specific steps for sanitization.

Today we're going to be talking about all those

different things here. And what's important to know --

next slide please -- is that these issues ... (audio

skipped) ... depending on what you're sanitizing.

So your sanitization policy could have -- could be

in multiple parts. You could have a

sanitization-of-digital-equipment-and-computers policy.

You could have an overall-sanitization policy and a

procedure that relates to computers, a procedure that

relates to PDAs, a procedure that relates to cleaning mice

and keyboards, and another procedure that relates to

cleaning something else.

The next slide, please.

So as I was saying, separate procedures for

different categories and types of devices is important.

You don't necessarily have to try and make one procedure

fit everything that you're working on.

And another thing that's a good idea is a

completely separate procedure for data wiping that you

group together in your location in your files with the

other sanitization processes. Because you might be

physically cleaning, but it's also a good time to think

about the nonphysical cleaning that happens.

Next slide, please.

I'm going to turn this back over right now, and

we're going to discuss the sanitization vocabulary. So I

think Carolyn is back up.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you so much, Jessica.

It's so helpful going over the policies and procedures,

giving examples of those. We have a few more examples

later on in the presentation.

Does anybody have a question for Jessica now?

Okay. Jessica, thank you so much.

So basically, when we're talking about

sanitization, a lot of people throw this term around, and

they're like, "Oh, we sanitize." But when we actually get

into your centers and start looking at what's actually

happening, and we find out that, you know, there's many

levels here.

So there's cleaning, which actually ranges from

physical removal of contaminants to sterilization. And a

lot of these, by the way, are defined by the FDA and other

organizations.

Sanitizing is a form of cleaning that removes the

most harmful substances. So that's sanitizing. So if

somebody says that they sanitize, they're removing the most

harmful substances.

If they say that they're cleaning, you know, that's

a different level. Detergents are chemicals that help

remove dirt and oil. And we're going to be talking about

this a little bit more. And disinfectants are chemicals

that remove and destroy harmful microorganisms.

So there's a big difference between detergents and

disinfectants and also the way that you want to treat

those, where you want to store them, and all of that.

Sanitizers are chemical or physical agents that

reduce microorganisms' contamination levels present on an

inanimate environmental surface. So that's basically what

sanitizers are. They're chemical or physical agents.

"Disinfection" means that you use a chemical

procedure that eliminates all recognized pathogenic

organisms but does not necessarily get rid of all micro

forms, including bacterial endospores and things like that.

So that's basically what that is.

Your work area. And we wanted to give you some

things to think about when we're designing a work area for

sanitizing computers.

What are special characteristics that, you know,

you must have in your work area? What services are

required? What are the tools that you need? Do you have

the right tools? And what kind of supplies are

appropriate? And do you have those? And once again, where

are you storing those?

The work area characteristics that we have found

that are the most helpful is when you have a separate

sanitization area. This is an area that doesn't have

carpet. The flooring should actually be wood or concrete.

You need to have ergonomic tables or counters because you

can really get detailed when you're cleaning computers and

other types of digital devices.

A keyboard, for example. I've spent literally 30

minutes cleaning a keyboard before. So I don't want to be

hunched over. I want to make sure that's -- I'm in a good

position.

You also want to be careful where you store

chemicals. You want to make sure that they're secure.

Also that they're not next to the furnace or something like

that. I've actually walked into different sites and seen

that.

You want to make sure that you have really thought

about the volunteers and your staff that's actually doing

this work and that they're safe. This should be one of

your top priorities.

Have you given appropriate training in handling,

you know, the devices and using the chemicals? Do they

know that you need to unplug, for example, devices or they

need to take the batteries out or things like that?

Is the area itself safe? Are you going to have a

slippery floor after you're finished with all this?

And have you taken appropriate personal safety

precautions as far as providing gloves, just like the

person who's in the picture here, or masks or other things

like that?

The service area in the work area, you need to make

sure, when you're considering this, that you have access to

power outlets that are properly grounded. You need to have

an ease of access to water and good task lighting, really

good lighting for the work area.

You also want to make sure that you have a drain,

if you've got a big area that you're going to be working

in, so that the chemicals can drain back out, you know, in

a safe way or a way that you can actually get the

chemicals -- you know, when you're finished with this, take

care of this.

When you're actually working with some of the

computer devices, you want to buy and have one of these

antistatic wristbands. That definitely can help -- a face

mask and a small brush -- soft brushes. Several of those

can be very, very helpful because there's lots of little

areas.

Dust is a huge issue along with some other

different spores and other things. We've found all kinds

of things in computers as we're working on cleaning them.

Anti-bacterial wipes. When you're looking at

supplies -- there's a whole list here, including antistatic

cloths, cotton swabs, disposable gloves, lint-free cleaning

cloths, the microfiber cleaning cloths, bleach, compressed

air.

You can actually get those compressed air cans in a

lot of different places now. We used to have to order

those, but you can actually get them at Office Depot or

wherever.

Glass cleaner can be very helpful if you know when

to use it. And then same with alcohol and/or alcohol

wipes.

And Jessica actually made a comment here, and I can

actually -- Jessica, do you want to jump back on and tell

everybody what you had just posted?

(Audio silence for several minutes.)

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hello. Thank you all for your

patience. If you do press your "Control" key, it actually

will try to grab the mic. So somebody had their "Control"

key pressed, and so that's what was going on, and our mic

was blocked on this end.

So, Jessica, you had made a comment. And I'm sorry

that we -- I had tried to turn it over to you for you to

share that comment with us, but we'll actually review that

comment here.

LIZ PERSAUD: Earlier, just a few seconds ago,

Jessica posted a link referencing a policy that she was

just speaking about. And she said that this could be a

free-standing procedure or incorporated into a policies and

procedures manual -- into your policies and procedures

manual. So it's a sample policy that she referenced

earlier.

So thank you, Jessica, for posting that.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. We appreciate that.

So we're going to talk in a little bit more detail

about how to clean the computer itself. We're looking at

the case cleaning. Just, as I said, really and truly can

be a nightmare. I put a lot of information up here just in

case we did lose the mic so that you'd be able to read it.

And so I just wanted to share with you that it

really shouldn't take more than 20, 25 minutes, you know,

even if the dust is really bad or, you know, if people have

smoked near that computer.

We actually, in the early '90s and even late '90s,

got some really yucky, yucky smoke-filled computers. And

I'm sure many of you have also had that. But even with

that, it shouldn't take more than 20, 25 minutes to do

this, to clean these computers.

So how you would actually clean your computer.

Here are the steps, basically.

You need to turn off your computer. And actually I

would unplug it and remove the side cover. So you need

that screwdriver that we were talking about and (audio

skip)... off the cover case.

And these are different -- there are different ways

you can do this. Some of them just pop off. Other ones

you have to actually use a screwdriver.

And then you would actually expose -- you could see

the motherboard and other hardware components there. You

can inspect all the cables and connections. Just make sure

that the cables are not frayed, that they're not loose,

they're not pinched, they're not snug or otherwise damaged.

If you come across any of these that you see that

there's an issue in any way, you should immediately replace

them. And if a cable is frayed, don't try to patch it up.

I've seen this done before. You don't want to do that with

electrical tape. It's very dangerous. So we actually

advise that you replace snug cables with longer ones just

so it doesn't accidentally snap.

And it looks like Bob is making some comments.

And, yes, absolutely you would make a visual inspection and

make sure that the components do work. And you would make

sure to unplug the system before you pull the side panel

off. Yep. Just like I said. Perfect. Thank you.

Now, what you would actually do is get out that

compressed air. There are different ways to do this. And

you can actually spray the can in there and get all that

dust out. You want to make sure that you do have a face

mask on, you know, something to protect you.

There's going to be a lot of dust in there,

depending on how old the computer is. And it's going to

get all over. So the first time you do this, you're

probably going to think, oh, wow, I can think of many

different ways to do this.

So you'll find the right angle for you. You'll

find, you know, the right space, you know, how actually you

do want to do this. I made sure that I didn't do this

necessarily in a totally closed room, or you'll be coughing

a lot.

The case fans, the hard disks, the power supplies,

all of those things are going to have a lot of dust on

them.

And you can get a little vacuum. There are those

handheld vacuums. I've actually found them at Big Lots or

Target for, you know, less than $10. And you can actually

use one of those to suck out the dust while you knock it

lose with the compressed air.

You want to make sure that you follow the

directions with the compressed air. Don't spray hardware

at close range. You don't want to get right up to it

because it's pretty -- it will come out pretty hard.

And -- okay. Very good. And Bob actually has

another comment. And he actually -- okay. Great. Y'all

do it a little differently. You vacuum first and then use

the blower. That's a great way to do it.

So the main idea here is making sure that you're

getting things cleaned out. You want to break away the

dust, and you also want to -- if your case has an air

filter, which some actually do, you want to remove it.

And warm water will actually help remove some of

that dust. And you can also use -- you just use a cloth.

Lint-free is the best way to go. Gently dab away the

excess water. Place the filter back into the case.

And you can replace the side cover of the computer.

You definitely want to check and make sure there aren't any

cables that are lying next to any fans or hanging out.

I've actually seen where we've pinched cables and then

broke them in the process of trying to put this back

together. And fasten the cover back and restore the power.

Bob, what comments do you have about this process?

I know there are many different ways to do it. There are

lots of videos actually online of how to do this. So what

are your thoughts that you want to share? Anybody else?

Okay. As y'all are actually talking or typing in

or whatever you want to do there -- let's see if anybody's

got their hand up. Nope. Nobody's got their hand up.

Okay.

So now we're going to talk about how to clean a

keyboard. Keyboards actually can get very, very dirty.

There's been lots of studies out there that have shown that

keyboards actually transfer a lot of illnesses, and

especially ones that are in classrooms or that have been

used by a lot of different folks in libraries or what have

you.

Basically what you need is you need a lint-free

cloth, a dry cloth, or a duster; clean -- some type of

suitable cleaning fluid, an alcohol-based would be fine;

cotton buds; a can of compressed air or vacuum cleaner

works well.

And if you're going to do a thorough clean, which

is very, very, very time consuming, and I'm not -- I

wouldn't really recommend it unless you really have to have

that specific keyboard -- you would need a flat-tip

screwdriver.

Would anybody want to comment on that or if you

have a different practice?

All right. What you would do basically is make

sure that that keyboard is disconnected from the PC, remove

the main plug, unplug -- I mean make sure that you unplug

it. And it's helpful also, if you're putting it back with

that PC, that you remember which socket it goes into.

The first thing I usually do is hold it upside

down. Helpwithpcs.com has this procedure listed, and I

thought it was right along lines with what we've seen done

and what we've done.

So hold it upside down and see if it actually can

release any of that debris that might be in there. You'd

be shocked what I -- I've been shocked at what I've found

in keyboards. You can press down the keys to release some

of that.

And you can get your can of compressed air that you

were just using and use it to blow any debris from under

and around the keys. And then use a vacuum cleaner just to

remove it.

And it looks like Bob from Touch the Future and

ReBoot, you blow the keyboard first and test to see if it

functions correctly before you clean. Excellent point.

That's great.

So now what you can do is, after you've obviously

evaluated and made sure that you do want to clean it, you

can take the cotton buds and a couple of drops of cleaning

fluid and carefully clean the sides of the keys. And

there's a figure up here of how they did that. Once again,

we borrowed this from helpwithpcs.com.

After you clean the sides of the keys, you want to

take that lint-free cloth that we have, damp it with your

cleaning fluid, and make sure that you don't put the liquid

directly on the keyboard.

You want to give the surface of the keyboard a good

wipe-over using the cloth and trace the contours of the

keys. And you see that's actually in Figure 1.2. And once

again, we appreciate Helpwithpcs that pulled that together.

After you've finished, give the keyboard a

wipe-over again with a dry cloth and duster -- or duster.

And now you have a nice, clean keyboard.

This is, as I said, not as detailed. And a lot of

folks have found that you can get a lot of keyboards in.

And so you do want to do that visual test. You want to do

that physical test, see if it actually works, if it's worth

your time.

I would definitely not recommend popping those keys

off and getting that thorough, thorough clean unless you

really, really have to do that and you really need that

specific keyboard.

So the next thing we're going to talk about is how

to clean a mouse. So everybody at some point, when using a

PC, needs to clean the mouse. We found this is true.

And the way you can tell that your mouse needs

cleaning is it will start getting stuck; it will start

doing this kind of trippy thing.

I was using a keyboard the other day over at a

public-access area, and the mouse was doing that same

thing -- bump, bump, bump. And so I actually took it apart

and cleaned it while I was there. So basically -- and I

was thinking about all of you when I was doing that.

So you would unplug the mouse from the PC and get

a -- to get a hand and soft tissue and suitable cleaning

fluid. I didn't use cleaning fluid yesterday, but I didn't

have any.

You can actually use window cleaner for this if you

have it available. And then what you would do is

actually -- and this is for your standard mouse. You would

turn it over, and you would turn the mouse cover

clockwise -- anticlockwise to release the ball and remove

the cover and take that ball out. So you could actually

call that counterclockwise too.

So you turn that mouse over, release the ball,

remove the cover, take that ball out, use a soft tissue to

clean the mouse ball.

Just -- and I would, once again, give kind of a

visual look at it, see, you know, does it have anything on

it that might be the reason why it's actually giving you

trouble. Remove any of that. And, once again, you can

find all kinds of things there: dust, hair, any kind of

debris.

And then you want to look inside and see how the

three rollers look within the mouse. And then you would

actually need to clean those too.

So you can improvise on how you're cleaning those

rollers. I have used, you know, my fingernail before. You

can use different things to clean that. So you just want

to make sure that you actually get the dust out -- that's

the main idea -- and whatever debris is in there.

So then you would actually put the ball back in,

and you would turn the little dial clockwise to lock it

back in place. And now your mouse should be good as new.

Jessica, I see that you said you've lost sound.

Has anybody else lost sound?

Okay. And Bob said, "Be careful not to break the

metal tip when cleaning."

Absolutely. There you go. That's a great point.

Thank you.

LCD. And I was actually going to show you that

there's a video out there for how to clean LCDs. And I'm

going to click on this, so we're going to take a little

gamble here and see how this goes.

Give me just a second as I copy and paste this up.

I'm not going to be able to copy and paste it.

I have a link up here, and it goes to ehow.com.

And this is a very cool website.

Have any of y'all been on ehow.com?

Ehow.com actually has a lot of videos, including

very detailed -- and they had several of these -- of how to

clean your monitor. They have how to clean your mouse, how

to clean your keyboard, and other videos like that too. So

I'd encourage you to check these out.

We're actually going to paste this in just a moment

for you to see it so you can get an idea. You can go out

there and look for yourself at this specific video.

The main thing is that -- oh, and thank you,

Jessica. Jessica just did it. We appreciate that. And

yes. So you can click on that, and you should be able to

go and see this site yourself. So thank you.

There's a difference in the way that you would

actually treat your LCD monitor versus your CRT monitor.

And when you get more detailed with that, you can

actually -- you want to make sure, for example, that when

you're using -- you don't want to use cleaners necessarily

like alcohol, things like that on your LCD surface. You

would want to use just a lint cloth, something like that.

When you're using the CRT, which a lot of those are

now being phased out -- I know in our office we don't even

have a CRT monitor. Those are more the older style -- you

can actually use, you know, a window cleaner or something

like that.

But you don't want to spray it directly on the CRT

screen. You want to actually spray it onto the cloth and

then clean it from that point.

Once again, make sure that you have these unplugged

and that you're doing a visual scan just like Bob

recommended earlier. Make sure that you're testing this

equipment before you actually clean it.

So the next thing that we need to consider is

actually data sanitization. And this is so important when

it comes to looking at what is actually on that hard drive

and making sure that you're not giving away more than you

plan to give away.

You want to also let your donors know that --

either in your policies that you do -- and a lot of people

call it the Department of Defense wipe, DOD wipe. And

we're going to talk more about that in a minute -- or give

them the information of how to do that themselves. And so

we're going to talk a little bit more about how this works.

There are some policies that I wanted to share with

you that are pretty good that are out there. And some of

these actually are good sustainability ideas too.

There's a group out in Idaho that we've done some

work with that's actually charging money for wiping hard

drives, and they give a certificate after they've finished

this.

So not only does somebody donate to them, but they

actually are paying for a service to have the hard drive

wiped, and they also get that certificate that says that

this has indeed happened.

The computer recycling group -- and this is their

website down here, which is Computer Recycling Group,

c-o-m-p-r-e-c-g-r-o-u-p.com -- they have formalized their

approach and making sure the total erasure of all internal

and external data on devices.

And they list the devices, which include pretty

much everything: hard drives, memory sticks, anything that

they actually get.

They go on to say that these services are optional

but very affordable and that they -- especially if you get

a volume, you know, of equipment coming in, then they can

give you a better deal.

So I thought this was very interesting that they

actually do this now, that they see this as part of their

service and who they are. And a lot of other groups are

doing that too.

I thought this -- it went on to explain that

deleting files from the computer does not remove the data.

A lot of people think that. They think that, when they

have deleted the files, that they have deleted everything.

And I think anybody who's actually been working in this for

a while knows that that's not the case.

So explaining that and educating the folks that are

actually walking through your door and that are actually

donating to you can be a very helpful thing.

Once again, this is just a copy of their policies.

Their protocol actually uses the three-pass, or

more, binary wipe, which a lot of us know as the Department

of Defense wipe. And it explains here that it puts the

binary code back in a random pattern over the existing

data.

Also wanted you just to, you know, take a step

back, when we're talking about policies, and see if -- you

know, think about this. Is your organization compliant

with the new government data privacy acts?

These regulations require you to have customer

privacy policies in place. Your policy must include secure

document retirement in order to be compliant with recent

acts. And I don't know if many folks know that, but that's

indeed the case.

Some of these acts include HIPAA, the

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Patriot

Act, and the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.

So that's -- you know, that's where some of these privacy

acts actually fall into.

And I would love to get your thoughts, Jessica, at

some point, if you feel like offering them, about how those

acts actually do apply in more specific ways.

So there are lots of methods for insuring data

protection. And believe it or not, we've actually seen

some of these employed where people will physically smash

the hard drive and then give the rest of the computer to

us. I've seen people give us hard drives that have, you

know, drill holes in them.

But there are alternatives, and that's actually

what we're going to talk more about. Not how to get your

sledgehammer or your drill bit but how to actually use

software or other tools to securely wipe that data.

So erasing. Is that enough? It's not. You can

spend hours going through your computer, and I've actually

had people do this, where they bring a computer in, and

they have spent literally hours erasing everything that

they think they've erased, and then very quickly I was able

to show, no, we can get it back because you've only removed

the shortcuts. You pretty much made them, you know,

nonvisible.

Google. If you do a Google search, you know, and

you have your computer connected, you can see that there's

all kinds of options for system-recovery software that

allows pretty much anybody to get that data and reinstate

it.

So as I said, the deleted files reside on the hard

drive, and it's just not a great way to get rid of your

information because it doesn't get rid of it. So erasing

is just not secure enough.

And this is a great resource, by the way,

Webopedia. I actually have used that several times. It's

an encyclopedia dedicated to computer technology.

So is formatting enough? Formatting basically

means to prepare a storage medium, usually a disk, for

writing and reading.

So when you format a disk, the operating system

erases all bookkeeping information on the disk. It tests

the drive -- the disk to make sure that sectors are

reliable. It marks bad sectors, those that are scratched

and other things. And it creates internal address tables

that are later used to locate information. That's what

formatting is. You must format a disk before you can use

it.

So is reformatting or formatting the drive enough?

It's a bit more secure than erasing. That's true.

Formatting a disk does not erase the data, by the way, on

the disk. It only -- only the address tables are erased

when you format or reformat.

It makes it much more difficult to recover the

files. However, someone like Bob Rust or any number of

other folks who have expertise in this would be able to

recover the data very quickly. And so the idea is that

formatting really and truly -- it may be enough, but

probably not.

So if you've decided a disk format is a good

choice, then the very least you should do is a full format

rather than the quick format. So full format, not quick

format, if you're going to do that.

So wiping. That's what we would encourage you to

really look at. So -- strongly encourage you, actually.

So wiping is much more secure. It's more secure than

obviously erasing and reformatting.

And the term "disk wiping" is not only used in

reference to hard drives but actually any storage device.

So when we're talking about that cell phone, any of the

digital devices, cameras, what have you, you actually want

to -- thumb drives, any of that -- consider wiping.

And Bob made the point that formatting still does

not destroy all the data on the hard drive. That's

absolutely correct.

And, Jessica, I did move closer. So hopefully you

can hear me better.

So wiping is more secure. Disk wiping is --

including the company and individually licensed software on

the computer is -- it's actually deleted irrecoverably

before recycle or donating and giving the equipment out to

another person.

And the way this actually works is you can get

disk-wiping software. And there are various types out

there. I'm actually going to actually share some of these

with you. Some are free. Some you actually pay for.

And the thing is is that they're all different in

some little ways. The algorithms differ from product to

product, but basically they all generally write on the

entire disk either zero or one. And that's basically what

happens. And then you need to reformat.

The more times that the disk is overwritten and

formatted, the more times that -- the more secure that disk

is going to be. So the trade-off is extra time, but it

really does make a difference.

So as I promised, I was going to talk a little bit

about the Department of Defense standard. And that's

something that Bob actually referenced a little bit ago.

It says the DOD wipe, I think Bob said, goes seven

layers deep onto the hard drive, and it does a great job,

and it's free. That's correct.

So this slide here talks more detail about that.

This is really considered, you know, a good security level.

Medium is basically what they say when they're talking

about it from the Department of Defense standard.

To those of us who are doing this reuse, we think

it's a pretty high standard. It's a good standard.

So specifies three iterations to completely

overwrite a hard drive, and it -- six times, according to

what the Department of Defense had out there.

Each iteration makes two write-passes over the

entire drive. The first pass inscribes ones over the drive

surface, and the second inscribes zeros.

After the third pass, the government-designated

code of 246 is written across the drive. And then it's

verified by a final pass that uses a read-verify process.

So there are a variety of products that are

available for different operating systems that you can

purchase -- or as I said, freely downloaded -- that perform

more secure wipes than just that basic DOD wipe.

And this is an example. This is called Eraser.

And it is a free software that's -- source code is released

under general public license. It's an advanced security

tool for Windows.

It allows you to completely remove sensitive

information from your hard drive. It works with

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Windows 2003. And it

also does a 2003 server and DOS.

DBAN is one that we hear a lot of folks using. And

same with Eraser. I've seen success -- great success with

Eraser and also with DBAN, which actually stands for

Darik's Boot and Nuke.

It's a self-contained boot floppy that securely

wipes the hard drive of most computers. So "most" being

most PCs.

And so it automatically completely deletes the

contents of the hard disk that can be -- that it can

detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for like bulk

or emergency data destruction.

There's also a wipe out there for Linux. I know

some of you are actually working with Linux as your

operating system. And so this is one that you can use.

It's called Wipe for Linux. It's effective. It does the

same thing as I described before.

And then there's Macintosh disk-cleaning software.

There's the disk utility. It's built into Microsoft

Operating System X. It's under the security options.

And then there's also WipeDrive for Mac.

WipeDrive is actually -- and I'm showing you right now just

a screen shot of their website. They do both Mac and PC.

And it's -- if you actually visit their website,

which is very easy to get to, and you can do a Google

search on WipeDrive, and it will take you right there -- it

will actually go through and tell you what it is that they

do, how deep they'll go into erasing the hard drive, and

exactly how they work this.

They've actually done over 20 million hard drives,

which is a lot. And it's been approved by the Department

of Defense and trusted by the government agencies and major

corporations.

It looks like Bob has a comment. Some of the

wiping software only works with floppy drives. Yes. And a

lot of newer computers only have DVD and CD drives, no

floppy. That's true.

And what a lot of folks are actually doing is

taking this -- they're downloading it directly from the

Internet, burning it onto a CD or even putting it on a

thumb drive or flash drive and able to use it that way.

Thank you, Bob. That's helpful.

Blancco. I wanted to tell you a little bit about

this data cleaner. Blancco, actually if you're a member of

Tech Soup and you're able to get on and get software at a

discount, you can actually get it through Tech Soup,

Blancco.

The thing that's really great about this one in

particular is that you can actually wipe up to 16 hard

disks of any size at a given time. You can do it all at

once if you put it on a computer server.

And that's what some folks have actually done.

They actually will have a server where they load Blancco,

and then they'll connect the computers and wipe them all at

the same time.

This is a very effective way to do this. It's a

very efficient way to do this. Can be very cost-effective.

A lot of people have received servers as a donation. And

so this is a good use for that.

The other thing that's really nice about Blancco is

the software automatically generates a detailed erasure

report with the hardware asset management information. And

a lot of people like that.

If you go back to that whole thing that we were

talking about with sustainability and looking at what's

another service that you can provide, that is a service

that you can provide is the erasure, the wiping of the

data. And then you can give somebody that report in

exchange for that service. It's something that's very

helpful.

So this is just a screen shot of Blancco's website.

It's very easy to navigate. My screen reader worked very

well with it. They are very connected. They actually have

gone to a lot of the conferences. I actually met them at a

conference a long time ago. And very friendly, very

helpful.

They have a wide range of products at different

costs -- at different cost levels. And it's blancco.com if

you'd like more information about them.

Does anybody have any questions about the CD -- I

mean the wiping drives or anything along those lines or

anything that they would like to share?

Okay. I'll move forward. Great.

PCWorld, it's -- obviously it's a magazine. It's

been around for years. They have a wonderful website. And

it's got a lot of helpful videos including a lot of PC

topics: how to clean hard drives, erasing versus cleaning

and wiping.

This is actually a link to a video.

And, Jessica, you're so quick. I was wondering if

you could type that in. I apologize. I thought y'all

would be able to click on this and go to visit that site.

But anyway, this is a link to the pcworld.com video

of how to completely erase a hard drive. They actually do

talk about wiping instead of erasing, but they use the term

"erase" because that's what most people think of whenever

they are talking about getting rid of their information.

Thank you, Jessica. You are so quick.

So the next thing that we're going to talk about is

considering digital data. So actually digital data can

pose an even greater privacy threat. And when I'm talking

about digital data, I'm really talking about cell phones,

smartphones, any of those devices, you know, iPods,

anything that you have saved information on, MP3 players.

Some of us actually have, you know, products that

read books, and we can save those books. Anything that

keeps personal data or addresses or anything like that.

People store PINs, passwords, other sensitive information

on there, addresses.

And we actually trade these in much more frequently

than PCs. A lot of my friends are upgrading, you know,

their iPods. You know, they have the Nano, the Shuffle,

the iPod, the -- you know, and it continues. And they've

got all kinds of information on there.

It can also be very, very difficult to wipe the

data off of these. And the Washington Post actually

provided a very cool story about this, very good

information and very detailed information about it. So I

wanted to give them credit here because of some of the

information they shared.

If your device stores contacts and other

information on a removable S-I-M card -- SIM card is what a

lot of people call it -- you need to start by taking that

card out.

You know, the SIM card doesn't necessarily store

all the data though. A lot of people think it does, but it

doesn't. There's often a lot of information, including

call logs, photos, memos, other things that reside on the

Intel memory.

I found this to be true. I knew it but found it to

be really true when my BlackBerry broke a couple of months

ago. And I was trying to transfer all the information, and

I actually ended up over at Sprint because that's who I

have my service with. And I was like, "Y'all do it." And

it took them 30 minutes to do what it was taking me over an

hour to do because they had all the tools set up.

And I actually asked if they would show us how to

do this at some point, and they said that they would. So

we're hoping to connect with Sprint so that they can show

us kind of behind the scenes how they do this.

So -- oh, and Bob Rust, once again. A magnet

passed over a PDA, cell phone, or personal device, yes, can

wipe most of the data before the device is donated.

Excellent point. That's exactly right.

And including that SIM card that I actually told

you to pull out a little while ago, I was going to tell

you, if you didn't want that information anymore, just rub

it with a magnet, and you'll be much better.

To get rid of the data, often you have to employ

multiple reset commands. And those commands are not always

easy to find. I had a Samsung phone that I had all kinds

of information on there, and it took me ten different

commands to delete all the data, which is ridiculous.

And so there are sites, though, that are helping

us. And I'm going to show you one of those.

So Free Data Eraser. This is just some information

that I actually grabbed off of their website. And it's --

basically it's a tool that gives you the information that

you need to remove the contact names, the phone numbers,

all of that in a more simple way. All you have to have is

the cell phone manufacturer, the cell phone model. You

provide your name and e-mail address, and you click the

"Submit" box.

It's very simple. I've actually done it. And if

you don't get the information that you need, they actually

are very helpful in getting it back to you.

So this is a screen shot of what their page

actually looks like and what this cell phone -- this is

actually focused on the cell phone data eraser and how you

actually would submit this. So it's, once again, very

intuitive. There's all kinds of information in there.

They are putting new models up every month. And so

just keep checking if your model isn't listed. You can

also e-mail dataeraser@wirelessrecycling.com to request the

addition of a particular model if you have several models.

And once again, you could use this for smartphones,

PDAs, cell phones. They have a whole bunch of different

listings up there, which is very nice.

So, Liz, is there anything that you want to add at

this point?

LIZ PERSAUD: I think that we've covered it. We

definitely want to remind y'all to head on over to the Pass

It On Center knowledge base. And the web address to that

is passitoncenter.org/content to get some (audio

skipped) ...

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Thank you for that great

comment. It's nice to see you on, by the way, as always.

So Sharon from Vermont said, "This is a wonderful

resource for any of our computer digital refurbishers to

encourage best practices."

So thank you. We really do appreciate that.

If you have more information that you want to share

with us, Bob, we appreciate you jumping in and sharing

information. Thank you. So valuable.

And any of you, if you have resources that you'd

like to share, we keep growing our knowledge base. And I'm

actually going to show you that in just a second.

But if you have questions about this presentation,

please contact us. You can contact Liz at

liz@passitoncenter.org. Trish Redmon, who has been

invaluable at helping us build our knowledge base, you can

contact her at trish@passitoncenter.org. Or you can

contact me, carolyn@passitoncenter.org.

I'm actually going to show you, really quickly, our

knowledge base. And it's actually at the

passitoncenter.org. And give me just one moment. Okay.

And we actually are featuring it right now on our

main website. And this is on our main home page. And so

you can actually get to it by clicking up on the top left

on the knowledge base. And this is actually a wealth of

information that has been shared from all kinds of

resources from around the country.

We're really especially thankful to folks like

Kansas and -- the folks in Kansas and other folks around

the country who have shared wonderful information as they

grew their programs.

It's very interactive, very intuitive, once again,

and you can actually explore the modules here and see, you

know, what -- if you have specific information that you're

looking for, you can do a search, and it will actually

search for that information.

Or you can actually just click on the modules

themselves or on any of the buttons down here if you're

interested in marketing, resources, what have you.

So please visit that website and be looking there

for more information about this topic of computer

sanitization and also digital device sanitization.

(Audio missing for about 5 minutes.)

We really thank you for your time and for your

participation. We hope that you'll actually come to the

conference in Atlanta. We hope to see you September 15th

through the 17th. It's going to be at the Omni.

We do have scholarships available and would really

welcome any of you applying for those. Liz Persaud is

actually going to be helping us in organizing the

scholarships. So e-mail her at liz@passitoncenter.org.

And if you have any other questions or any other

information for us, please let us know.

It was really exciting to see some of you who have

not been on with us before. We look forward to getting to

know you even more.

And, Mary, thank you. I appreciate that you said

that there's some enlightening practices. So thank you

all.

And you're asking -- Chase from -- hello, Chase,

from Kentucky. Good to see you. You were wondering, when

will the archive of this webinar be available? In about

three to four weeks is what Liz just told me.

So we'll have an accessible transcript. We will

probably go ahead and get the -- oh, Kimberly Griffin.

Okay. She actually knows. So she said in about three

weeks. And I'd put my money on three weeks.

We can actually get the PowerPoint to you sooner if

you would like that. If you need the transcript, that will

definitely be available in three weeks. So, Chase, just

let me know if you need it.

So any other questions or comments?

Julie, is there anything you would like to add?

Sharon asked if there are tours on September 14th

for FODAC and ReBoot at the conference. Absolutely.

The information that I shared during this -- the

computer sanitization, device sanitization, a lot of that

really did come from the experiences of ReBoot.

ReBoot is a really cool -- it's just a wonderful,

wonderful organization housed under Touch the Future,

Inc. Joanne Willis and Bob Rust and Lamar Polly and that

whole crew have done an outstanding job.

So if you want to see a lot of this in action, I

would encourage you to get in touch with those folks and

actually go on the tour September 14th of Friends of

Disabled Adults and Children, which handles a lot of the

more durable medical equipment side. And then right down

the street is ReBoot. So there you go.

Joanne and Bob, do you y'all want to provide your

information if people want to get in touch with you?

And, Joy, thank you for commenting there. Great.

All right.

If you have any other questions for us, let us

know. We will have National Cristina Foundation on board

with us in a future webinar -- next month, actually.

The next topics coming up for our webinars actually

are focused on E-waste, looking at legislation around that.

Jessica Brodey is going to be joining us along with Yvette

Naren for that one.

And also we'll be focusing on emergency

preparedness, emergency response and looking at step two,

if you will, of that whole topic. It's going to be the

second part in the series that Jessica Brodey, Elliot

Harkavy, and George Heake are pulling together.

And then the webinar in August is actually going to

be data tracking and inventory. And we're excited about

that.

So it looks like Joanne -- thank you, Joanne, for

posting -- that the e-mail address is

info@touchthefuture -- spelled out -- touchthefuture.us.

And the phone number there is (770) 934-8432. And that's

for ReBoot. Excellent.

Oh, and Lisa. Hello, Lisa. Thank you very much

for posting that. To register for the conference that

we're actually excited to be collaborating with NATTAP to

pull off -- this -- we're very excited about working with

them on this -- you actually would click this link. And

you can go there and register. So thank you, Lisa. That's

very helpful.

All right. So I think, if there's nothing else,

then we'll wrap up. And we will actually be having an

evaluation, you know, sending out a survey just to see if

this was indeed helpful.

You can actually get to that survey -- we'll have

it online, and we'll also e-mail it out to everyone because

we do want to improve and grow our webinars. And we

definitely want to be able to serve you through this

avenue.

So y'all take care, and let us know if there's

anything else we can do for you.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, everyone.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: That was Liz. All right. Take

care.