Didn’t have enough scares this Halloween? Then give your old computers and electronics to just any old recycling company and cross your fingers they won’t tell all of your secrets!!
Data security is top priority to corporations; no one can afford the repercussions from letting their employees and customer’s confidential information slip through the cracks. However, many corporations don’t even know where this information is within their own infrastructure and this makes it difficult to protect the privacy of consumers.
In 2010 a small non-profit health care provider in Bronx, New York returned one of their leased digital copiers to the leasing company unaware that these copiers have hard drives containing all information scanned on the machine. For legal reasons, Affinity Health Plan was required to file a breach notification to all applicable regulators and notify all clients whose information may have been compromised. Although there were not any leaks directly connected to this one copier, there were 409,262 individuals notified costing thousands of dollars and losing credibility with their customers.
Imagine if it was not only ONE copy machine but hundreds of computers that you decided to recycle being the environmentally friendly employee that you are. If a ruthless recycling company got hold of those computers and did not keep their “promise” to destroy all data and hard drives on the machines, your company could forever be indebted to your employees and clients whose information was exposed. How do you protect your client’s data and not harm the environment by tossing your retired electronics into landfills?
ASK YOUR RECYCLING COMPANY THEIR POLICIES ON DATA DESTRUCTION AND SEE PROOF FOR YOURSELF. Unfortunately we are in a new generation where taking someone’s word is not good enough especially when 1 in 20 Americans are at risk for identity theft each year. After making the wise decision to use a certified recycling company who is required to have rigorous data destruction plans implemented, then ask to see proof for yourself. There is no harm in needing to know what is going to happen to your assets once they leave your facility.
CompuCycle offers our clients on-site data destruction with our new mobile shredder. Our clients are very loyal and trusting however it puts them at ease seeing their hard drives go directly from the computer into the shredding machine making all data unrecoverable. Some larger clients whom don’t have the time or resources to physically watch all memory being destroyed are invited to come tour our facility and become familiar with our processes. Once they see we have three options of data destruction all meeting Department of Defense and NIST 800-88 standards, they become comfortable with sending their hard drives with us to be erased.
Don’t make yourself or your company’s assets vulnerable to a data breach. Know what materials are leaving your facility, where they are going, and what is going to happen to them and ALWAYS USE AN R2 CERTIFIED RECYCLING COMPANY.
CompuCycle 