4 ms·

My F500 company has a 5 year tech refresh policy, and old laptops are trashed, not donated or resold.

azinman2 5y ago
I cannot imagine that represents the majority of the market.
saiya-jin 5y ago
Exactly, corporate never risks them getting into wrong hands, no matter how theoretical risk that might be. Same for phones
- lizknope 5y ago
  We used to remove the hard drives which takes about 20 seconds on a desktop that has a "tool-less" case. Then donate the computer to anybody including the employees if they want it. It takes a few minutes to do that on a laptop but it's not that long.
  - oneplane 5y ago
    Seems like FDE would solve that and make it a hardware non-issue.
    - fomine3 5y ago
      Work if you trust FDE. Some FDE are broken, like this: https://www.zdnet.com/article/flaws-in-self-encrypting-ssds-let-attackers-bypass-disk-encryption/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/flaws-in-self-encrypting-ssds-...
  - hyperman1 5y ago
    One of our interns got that jobs. Left are 200 old laptops, take out the SSD and smash it with a hammer. Right are 200 new laptops, don't touch. Turns out someone got confused between left and right, gave him the wrong instructions, and he smashed 200 brand new SSDs. Ouch.
oneplane 5y ago
Doesn't that mean that the problem is the policy of the F500 company and not whatever the supplier had in mind?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
exikyut 5y ago
Puts on ewaste management company uniform "Yeah <normal guy>'s out sick today, I'm his replacement." *yeet* In all seriousness I would absolutely love to do this sort of thing IRL, in situations where I'll just make incompetent management etc unimpressed (because I'm showing their inefficiency) and there wouldn't be any real/significant ramifications (eg machines that processed material a couple notches more interesting than what PCI-DSS covers). But obviously I don't mean I'd literally use the above example to achieve this ;P I've just learned a bit about (eh, you could say "been bitten by") poorly coordinated e-waste management/refurbishment/etc programs - these can be a horrendously inefficient money-grab if the top-level coordination isn't driven by empathy in the right places. So I would definitely get a kick out of doing something like that properly.
kube-system 5y ago
I suspect the disposal company your company contracts with parts them out and resells them. Although if you're literally throwing them in the dumpster, that's not even legal in many jurisdictions.
schmorptron 5y ago
Damn, they could at least just trash the hard drives and just give them to local schools or something...

I cannot imagine that represents the majority of the market.

Exactly, corporate never risks them getting into wrong hands, no matter how theoretical risk that might be. Same for phones

lizknope 5y ago
We used to remove the hard drives which takes about 20 seconds on a desktop that has a "tool-less" case. Then donate the computer to anybody including the employees if they want it. It takes a few minutes to do that on a laptop but it's not that long.
- oneplane 5y ago
  Seems like FDE would solve that and make it a hardware non-issue.
  - fomine3 5y ago
    Work if you trust FDE. Some FDE are broken, like this: https://www.zdnet.com/article/flaws-in-self-encrypting-ssds-let-attackers-bypass-disk-encryption/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/flaws-in-self-encrypting-ssds-...
- hyperman1 5y ago
  One of our interns got that jobs. Left are 200 old laptops, take out the SSD and smash it with a hammer. Right are 200 new laptops, don't touch. Turns out someone got confused between left and right, gave him the wrong instructions, and he smashed 200 brand new SSDs. Ouch.

oneplane 5y ago

Doesn't that mean that the problem is the policy of the F500 company and not whatever the supplier had in mind?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

exikyut 5y ago

Puts on ewaste management company uniform "Yeah <normal guy>'s out sick today, I'm his replacement." *yeet* In all seriousness I would absolutely love to do this sort of thing IRL, in situations where I'll just make incompetent management etc unimpressed (because I'm showing their inefficiency) and there wouldn't be any real/significant ramifications (eg machines that processed material a couple notches more interesting than what PCI-DSS covers). But obviously I don't mean I'd literally use the above example to achieve this ;P I've just learned a bit about (eh, you could say "been bitten by") poorly coordinated e-waste management/refurbishment/etc programs - these can be a horrendously inefficient money-grab if the top-level coordination isn't driven by empathy in the right places. So I would definitely get a kick out of doing something like that properly.

kube-system 5y ago

I suspect the disposal company your company contracts with parts them out and resells them. Although if you're literally throwing them in the dumpster, that's not even legal in many jurisdictions.

schmorptron 5y ago

Damn, they could at least just trash the hard drives and just give them to local schools or something...