Re: Corporate policy question - Personal Laptops

Hello Tom,

In such a condition you should be following what your company policy
dictates. If your organization has provided the laptops that in such
cases the laptop is your organizations property. Now in the case if
its a personal laptop, it still contain organization's Business
Information. And in such cases it becomes your organizations 'critical
Information asset container'.

The owner of the laptop is the manager/employee. But some information
it holds belongs to your organization. To safe guard your
organization's Critical Information its how your organization frames
the Security policies and procedures.

If the laptop is provided by the organization, wiping of the
organizations Critical Information, can be justified. But if your
organization has let your staff use their personal laptops, then the
matter becomes more complicated. And in such a situation the
agreements that the employee had to sign (Eg NDA) comes handy for the
Organization (to enforce the policies like wiping out Organization's
Critical Information Asset). But do consult your Legal staff....


Regards,

Meenal A. Mukadam
(CEH, MBA Informations Systems & Security)



On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 10:53 AM, Tom Yarrish <cdtdelta@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey all,
Needed some advice on a corporate policy issue. If an employee has a
personal laptop in the office, and that employee is terminated in the
process of a merger, can the company wipe the hard drive of the
personal computer before it's returned to that employee? Here's the
scenario:

Our company is going through a merger, and through the rounds of
"integration" of the two companies, employees that are let go from the
IT department are escorted out of the building immediately, and not
allowed to return. Their manager packs up their personal affects and
ships it to them. In one case, the employee had some personal laptops
in their office, and wants them back (obviously). Are we allowed to
wipe the hard drive of that personal laptop before giving it back to
the employee?

I'm trying to determine if this is even legal or not, so I'm not sure
where to look for advice.

Thanks ahead of time....




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--
Meenal A. Mukadam

-------------------------------------------------------------
Far away there in the sunshine
are my highest aspirations.
I may/maynot reach them,
but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them and try to follow
where they lead
-------------------------------------------------------------

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