What Is Degaussing and Why Is It Important?

Are you familiar with the security process of degaussing? If you don’t work with hard drives and old storage materials like cassette tapes, you may have never heard of it. However, don’t underestimate the importance of the degaussing process for keeping your information safe. If you’re left wondering, “What is degaussing and why is it important?” keep reading to learn more about this process.
What Is Degaussing?
Degaussing is the process of removing old or unwanted data from items like hard drives, disks, cassette tapes, and more. While these items are slowly becoming technology of the past, it’s still important to handle them with care. Degaussing machines are some of the only technologies that can guarantee hard drive erasure, which makes them particularly important to feature in offices, government buildings, and even homes.
How Does Degaussing Work?
Degaussing involves a demagnetization process that targets the media storage on disks, tapes, and other materials. Degaussing alters the magnetic domain where this media or data is stored, scrambling it. Once the degaussing process shifts this domain, the original information becomes unreadable and can’t be recovered. It’s important to only start the degaussing process if you’re 100 percent ready to dispose of these items. Think of a degaussing machine like a paper shredder—it will help destroy and protect your information, but you won’t be able to piece it back together after use.
Why Is Degaussing So Important?
Because items like cassette tapes and disks are becoming old technology, degaussing is more important now than ever. From everyday homeowners to business owners, more people are improperly disposing of these items with confidential information still stored on them. One of the most important reasons to degauss old hard drives and other electronics is to maintain the security of your business or personal information.
We hope this brief explanation of the degaussing process has helped answer your initial question, “What is degaussing and why is it important?” After learning more about the process, you might decide that you need a degaussing machine to help clear old information out of your home or office.