Redefining keyboards to NOT be IT equipment?

elecplus · 12 May 2015, 21:25

I have been foiled again. I am screaming, but it won't do any good.

Once again I found a stash of old IBM bank keyboards. Once again I arranged to purchase them. They are in a town where a list member lives, and he made arrangements for a truck to pick them up from the storage center.

Then came the snafu, as it always does. For security reasons, all IT equipment must be recycled, as in destroyed. None is available for sale to a member of the general public.

How do we get keyboards "declassified" as "IT equipment" for the purposes of the banking community?

I probably never will come across another stash of these again!

guk · 12 May 2015, 21:30

Take a can of spray paint, give each of those keyboards some pretty pink splotches, call it art and sell one of them to me.

Muirium · 12 May 2015, 21:32

Easy: from now on you're also a recycler. The truck just takes them off to the grinder. This isn't plutonium, they aren't inspectors.

andrewjoy · 12 May 2015, 21:34

that all you can do, crazy bankers . Did you tell them what they are worth ?

elecplus · 12 May 2015, 21:35

Muirium wrote: ↑Easy: from now on you're also a recycler. The truck just takes them off to the grinder. This isn't plutonium, they aren't inspectors.

Umm, I can't exactly supply a certificate of destruction if I resell them, now can I?
Besides, I don't have a recycle permit or license.

Muirium · 12 May 2015, 21:37

What kind of paper are those printed on? Just out of casual interest…

elecplus · 12 May 2015, 21:42

Muirium wrote: ↑What kind of paper are those printed on? Just out of casual interest…

Recycle permits are printed on official State of Texas paperwork.

Destruction certificates are generally something on company letterhead that says you received x pounds of y equipment, and it was destroyed in such a manner that it could no longer be used AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED on z date.

So technically, removing the screws and disassembling everything would be destroying it? I guess I would have to actually kill something. Kill the cables!

Halvar · 12 May 2015, 21:46

Those banksters just don't want anyone to get their fingerprints. Because that's the only kind of data these keyboards store ...

Do they also destroy monitors? Mice? That's so ridiculous. And frustrating as well.

I work in IT, and German privacy laws are quite strict, but I've never heard of such a thing. We do work with personal data, we are certified for this, but my collegues just take out the hard drives and have them destroyed...

andrewjoy · 12 May 2015, 22:04

I work in IT too , i just destroy the hard drive , no fancy destruction just take the platters out and take some sandpaper to them stratch em up a bit and bend em .

ramnes · 12 May 2015, 22:06

"Let's recycle all that old stuff"

scottc · 12 May 2015, 22:12

andrewjoy wrote: ↑I work in IT too , i just destroy the hard drive , no fancy destruction just take the platters out and take some sandpaper to them stratch em up a bit and bend em .

But WILL IT BLEND?

Muirium · 12 May 2015, 22:15

Hard drives and other data stores are indeed the only things worth actually destroying. Keyboards are the epitome of living in the moment: they store nothing, all they can tell you is what keys you're pressing NOW.

SL89 · 12 May 2015, 22:17

elecplus, how bad would it be to just sacrifice some shitty beige keyboards in their place to show that *something* was destroyed? The Old Switcheroo as they say...

chzel · 12 May 2015, 22:17

You could destroy what is useless/easily replaceable in each keyboard (for example the controller PCB in the Kishavers).

was destroyed in such a manner that it could no longer be used AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY INTENDED

Do you need to clarify whether it can be repaired?

SL89 · 12 May 2015, 22:26

what about just degaussing them? we used to do that at the TV studio, it worked on media but left things workable if you replaced the HD and whatnot.

elecplus · 12 May 2015, 22:28

Nope, no clarification needed.

For ease and quick handling, hard drives are usually punched here. You could also remove the PCB from the hdd, which makes it technically useless, but someone COULD still get the data back from the platters if there were really determined.

That's why I think cutting the cables would suffice. Then you can't plug them back into a 4704.

In any case, I guess all this is moot, as long as keyboards are considered IT equip by the banks.

Muirium · 12 May 2015, 22:30

Yeah. To liberate these boards it sounds like first you need the official certification of someone who can do industrial wrecking like this. Then onto the sneaky!

SL89 · 12 May 2015, 22:45

So find a sympathetic party. I'm sure a slight premium to even 'damaged' boards is better then no boards. I'd have to guess people would be willing to cut in an extra percentage to save these.

Touch_It · 13 May 2015, 01:41

Jebus this sucks. I get not giving out personal data etc. but these are keyboards -_-. Damn it. This is why we can't have nice things.

Belfong · 13 May 2015, 02:58

I just hope they don’t sell SSK to banks, do they?