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220-1102 Practice Question: A security incident occurred when an employee…
A security incident occurred when an employee disposed of a hard drive by throwing it in the trash. The hard drive contained unencrypted customer data. Which two practices should have been followed to prevent this environmental and security breach? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that a quick format or file deletion is sufficient for data sanitization, when in reality these actions only remove logical pointers and leave the underlying data fully recoverable.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Degauss the hard drive before disposal.
Option A is correct because degaussing exposes the drive to a strong magnetic field that destroys the magnetic domains holding the data, rendering the hard drive's contents unrecoverable before disposal. Option B is correct because placing the drive in a secure shredding bin for e-waste ensures the media is physically destroyed by an approved vendor, preventing both data remanence and improper environmental disposal. Option C is not sufficient because a quick format only rewrites file system metadata and leaves the underlying data blocks recoverable with forensic tools. Option D is also inadequate because deleting files and emptying the Recycle Bin only removes references to the data, not the data itself, so the unencrypted customer information would still be recoverable from the discarded drive.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Degauss the hard drive before disposal.
Why this is correct
Degaussing involves exposing the hard drive to a powerful, rapidly fluctuating magnetic field. This process randomizes the magnetic domains on the platters, effectively scrambling all stored data beyond any practical means of recovery. It renders the drive permanently inoperable and is a highly effective method for ensuring data sanitization on magnetic media, making it a proper and secure disposal technique.
- ✓
Place the hard drive in a secure shredding bin for e-waste.
Why this is correct
Placing a hard drive into a secure shredding bin ensures its complete physical destruction, rendering all data absolutely unrecoverable. Industrial shredders pulverize the drive's platters and components into tiny fragments, making data reconstruction impossible. This method is considered the most secure form of data sanitization and is often mandated for highly sensitive information, with certified e-waste recyclers handling the material responsibly.
- ✗
Perform a quick format of the drive before disposal.
Why it's wrong here
A quick format operation primarily overwrites the file system's allocation table and root directory, marking the entire drive as empty and ready for new data. However, it does not physically erase the actual data blocks where files reside. Consequently, specialized data recovery software can easily bypass the new file system information and reconstruct the original files from the underlying magnetic patterns, making it an insufficient method for secure data disposal.
- ✗
Delete the files and empty the Recycle Bin.
Why it's wrong here
Simply deleting files and emptying the Recycle Bin only removes the operating system's pointers to the data, not the data itself. The sectors on the hard drive containing the file's content are merely marked as available for future writes, but the original data remains intact. Until new data overwrites these sectors, the 'deleted' information is readily recoverable using common undelete utilities or forensic tools, posing a significant security risk.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Windows Command Line Tools
Key term
Metadata
Metadata is data that describes other data, providing context such as when a file was created, who created it, or its size.
Key term
Data remanence
Data remanence is the residual representation of data that remains on a storage medium even after attempts to erase or remove it.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1202 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1202 exam.