This is a hypothetical scenario, but one we need an answer to before we can implement DAOS on our Mail Servers:
Joe is in our Payroll Department and has generated a spreadsheet showing Upper level management and their salaries (Joe’s first mistake)
Joe creates an email message a 7 p.m. on Friday, addresses it to 25 people and attaches this spreadsheet (his second mistake).
DAOS has been implemented on the 10 servers involved. We know we can go through the email databases and find the message with the attachment and delete it. However, our security personnel want us to shred the associated NLO file. Is there ANY way to find the name of the NLO file so we can shred it? Our security group wants to make sure that data is not recoverable in any fashion.
First, keep in mind that the NLO files are encrypted, so even if the file was accessed at the OS level, it would not be readable.
Second, after you delete all of the messages that reference an attachment on a server, the DAOS manager knows that the NLO file is eligible to be deleted. By default, it waits 30 days before deleting the NLO file, but you can force it to ‘prune’ NLO’s without references with the command:
I am aware of the encryption and the pruning. However, our security people are not comfortable until we can absolutely prove the data is not recoverable. The only “proof” they will accept is shredding of the file. (Our security people are paranoid) Also, because backups will be taken, they will need to be isolated so no one can inadvertently restore that NLO.
Although not an automatic process you can find out what the associated NLO file is. Also, if you are backing up the NLO’s using TSM you can run a command to delete only those NLO’s from the backup storage pools.
