Security and data destruction in Google

Google sheds light on the secrets of its work in the data center. Read more - in the video, through which you can learn about security measures in the company and how to destroy old hard drives to prevent leakage of customer data.



Note trans. Who is too lazy to watch all the videos and I want to immediately see the disc shredding - rewind to 3.30

Google “strictly tracks the location and status” of each hard drive, from the multi-step process of destroying a drive to sending its warped debris to a recycling center.
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Details under the cut.

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“This device, which is used to destroy old hard drives, is called a crusher,” says the voice-over. "The steel piston is pushed through the center of the disk and the plates are deformed, which makes them unreadable."

Next, we are shown a powerful shredder, spewing from its shredder subsoil the remnants of the disks that the company used to store user data.

“As you can see, we do not leave anyone a chance to get Google’s client data from these discs,” the narrator states.

Then we see several boxes with crushed parts of hard drives ready for shipment to the recycling center.

Of course, this information (personal data of users, their search history, geo-data from Android phones) would become a tasty morsel for various kinds of intruders. The video makes it clear that Google is unlikely to ever leak such data.

Google has over 30 data centers in the US and abroad (since 2008), according to an article in the Knowledge Base. This video shows the work of one of them, in Hamina (Finland), and describes a practice widely used in all Google’s centers.

However, Google adds: "There are additional guarantees that we will not disclose your data."

Each data center has thousands and thousands of machines that serve search results, e-commerce, and services to Google Apps clients. Each server is controlled by a special version of Linux, modified by Google. Reducing the risk of vulnerabilities is ensured by the fact that Google uses only the necessary software and equipment to perform specific tasks.

Google declares that all customer data is “stored in several places to ensure reliability. ... Data files have random names and are not stored in the clear, so a person will not be able to read them."

After destroying old drives, Google retains additional backups on tape drives, providing "a sufficient level of backup to help protect your customers' data."

Storing data on a tape is quite justified a couple of months ago, after disabling Gmail, which led to the loss of letters from many users.

The video was uploaded to YouTube on April 13 (Wednesday), before Amazon crashed. The very same post containing this video and detailed comments on it, was published on Friday.

Google data centers are connected to the Internet via high-speed fiber, and back-up generators are always on hand in case of power outages. In the event of a fire, all user data is immediately transferred to another data center.

More happened to Amazon. Amazon disconnected due to events that caused “too frequent re-mirroring” of the data, creating a lack of machine capacity and power.

Most of the video is about the story of physical security measures. Access to places where data centers are located is tightly controlled, no public excursions or visits. Cars are checked at the entrance to the checkpoint, which are guarded around the clock, to enter the building using a card of high level of tolerance. When entering some rooms, employees even have to go through identification on the retina.

Automated video surveillance system inform the security staff in case of detection of unauthorized persons and the occurrence of abnormal situations.

Some data centers use “sophisticated thermal imaging cameras” to identify potential intruders. Google security officers have cars and scooters to respond quickly to problems, and they maintain relationships with local law enforcement.