Secure Data Deletion

The Laserfiche Server supports secure data deletion, which ensures that images, text, or electronic files deleted from a Laserfiche repository cannot be physically recovered from the hard disk. Enabling this feature will cause the Laserfiche Server to overwrite the disk space corresponding to the deleted file.

The Laserfiche Server can wipe the disk space with four, seven, ten or thirteen passes per file deletion. Each pass consists of writing twice to the appropriate disk space. The first time, the byte "10101010" will be written over every byte in the file. The second time, the byte "01010101" will be written over every byte in the file. This is repeated for each pass. After the last pass, random data will be written to each byte in the deleted file.

When deciding on the number of overwrite passes, take into account the tradeoff between speed and the security of your deleted files. As the number of passes increases, it will take longer for the Laserfiche Server to delete an image, text, or electronic file.  

To enable secure file deletions

  1. Start the Laserfiche Administration Console.
  2. In the console tree, select the desired Laserfiche Server item.
  3. Select the desired Laserfiche repository.
  4. If security has been enabled on that repository, log in as any user who has been granted the Manage Repository Configuration privilege for the specified repository.
  5. Expand the Repository Options node.
  6. Expand the Settings node.
  7. From the Action menu, select Properties. The Settings dialog box will appear.
  8. In the File deletion option, select the Overwrite files before deletion check box.
  9. For the Number of overwrite passes option, select the number of passes that will be used to overwrite each deleted file. Deleted files can be overwritten 4, 7, 10 or 13 times.
  10. Click OK to save your new settings.

To enable secure file deletions 

  1. Open the web client management page. Sign in as any user who has been granted the Manage Repository Configuration privilege for the specified repository.
  2. Select General, then Settings.
  3. Under File deletion, select the Overwrite files before deletion check box.
  4. For the Number of overwrite passes option, select the number of passes that will be used to overwrite each deleted file. Deleted files can be overwritten 4, 7, 10 or 13 times.
  5. Click Save to save your new settings.