Computerized shredder of sensitive documents marketed by area lawyer

Local launch of ‘Shred/Cube’ scheduled for March 2020

Fifteen years ago, a Warren County attorney had a dream.

Sometime in the next couple of months, probably the first week of March, the dream will come true.

At that time, Nancie Williams will offer a prototype of her invention, a white, inch-square cube in a small green box, to professional establishments in the Northern Shenandoah Valley to test for its efficacy in totally destroying data that, until now, has been sent to the computers’ Recycling or Trash bin, deleted, and forgotten about.

Unbeknownst to many computer users, files deleted in this manner remain accessible on the hard drive and can be extracted by even lower-skilled hackers. Nancie’s invention, the Shred/Cube, aims to solve this very common issue.

Simple to use: Plug the Shred/Cube in to USB port and you’re ready for permanent virtual world deletion. – Courtesy Photos

The Shred/Cube is a small device that plugs into a computer’s USB port and requires no installation or external downloads to be used. Once inserted, the device places an icon on your desktop that opens a very simple and user-friendly control panel. Users can drag and drop any files onto this virtual control panel to either “shred” or “disintegrate” them, the former being used for the home and office while the latter meets the Department of Defense’s (DoD) standard for unclassified file disposal. Nancie’s team has tested her product’s usefulness at permanently destroying computer files by using the best-known file recovery methods available on the market, with zero successful recovery attempts.

Nancie, who resides with husband Arnold and their two young children in Middletown, came to the area from Alexandria in 2005. She first joined the Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office before continuing in private law practice, which she continues to do from her office, Northern Valley Law LLC in Front Royal.

The dream began, and, by and by, she devised a computer attachment, on paper, that became a reality more than a decade later when she sought out a technician who would buy into her model and turn it into a piece of equipment. To turn the dream into reality, in stepped Alex Stieb of Stephens City, founder of Lux Foundation Solutions, a designer building and engineering firm. Alex, a family man with four young children, is a self-taught, from age 10, computer nerd and immediately knew what his new attorney friend was talking about.

Alex Stieb and Nancie Williams happily toss a dream between them as the little white Shred Cube’s launch date draws near.

Said Nancie, “Up until Alex and I met, folks had routinely pooh pooed my concept … he came along, believed in the product, designed it (along with a core group of a dozen others with varied technical backgrounds) and here we are with a fully functional ‘Shred/Cube’, ready to test market, hopefully on March 1 or thereabouts.”

Around that date, Nancie says, 1,000 Shred/Cubes will be placed on the market locally. The likes of doctors, dentists, hospitals, law firms, government entities including colleges and schools that keep highly confidential records of clients, patients, teachers, students and so on are the targets of this initial marketing effort by Shred/Cube LLC.

Fully patented and tested, the cost of the small, white cube in the Nancie-designed green box, will be $149.99. A Warren County Rotary Club member, Nancie Williams (known prior to her marriage to Arnold Williams as Nancy Kie) will first address her Rotary club on her invention, and be open to invitations to other organizations who want to hear about it. The U.S government, perhaps?

If it is successful, what do Nancie and Alex see for their invention?

“We’ll sell to the highest bidder,” Nancie smiled.

The Shred/Cube will soon be ready for marketing.