Erasing data for Norway's defence forces

- This delivery reinforces the good customer relationship we already have with Norway's defence forces, comments Bjørn Arne Skogstad, President and CEO for Ibas AS. At the same time, the agreement confirms that we possess important value-enhancing products for key partners in the dealer chain.

Siemens Business Services is the main supplier of computers to the Norwegian defence forces, and will also handle all logistics relating to recycling the redundant PCs. Under the agreement, Ibas will supply its specially-designed ExpertEraser tool for data erasure. The process will take place at the defence forces' own sites before machines are sent for recycling.

- We hope this agreement can serve as an important reference project, both for the public sector and for private enterprise," says Mr Skogstad. So far, neither of these has taken the security risks involved when disposing of computer equipment seriously.

Deleting all information from a hard drive is highly complicated, given the structure and design of today's operating systems. Contrary to the belief held by many people, commands such as "format", "fdisk" and "delete" do not remove the data stored on a drive. These functions simply change the structure of the drive and leave most of the information intact - allowing it to be recovered with available software tools.

Ibas is a world leader in the field of data recovery and erasure services. Computer forensics, which is a fast-growing market, is another important business area for the company. Ibas has a total of 82 employees, working at the main offices in Kongsvinger, Norway and in subsidiaries in eight countries - Sweden, Denmark, Finland, England, Germany, Poland, France and Singapore. The company also has distributors and agents in a number of other countries in Europe, Asia and America. Ibas (Ticker:IBAS) is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.