If your company has a data breach, you know it will cost you. It will hurt your company financially, and it will negatively impact your reputation. Hiring a company who specializes in data destruction, and is invested in protecting your data, is the right choice for securing your sensitive data. The right company has the equipment capable of disposing hard drives by completely destroying them. Improperly handled IT assets can harm your business, and you need to make sure you know how your shredding company is handling your information.
How Does Your Shredding Company Dispose of Your IT Assets?
If you’ve hired a data destruction service, you already understand the importance of destroying documents, electronic data, and hardware that you no longer need. You probably trust your shredding company to be the experts and you might not be concerned about how they dispose of your assets. It’s important to note that how they destroy your assets and data matter a great deal-and you should know what they are doing. Simply wiping a hard drive isn’t enough.
Destruction is the only way to ensure your information is gone for good.
NAID-Certified companies meet all the standards for destruction and disposal of sensitive information. When you hire a shredding company, you need to ask exactly how they will dispose of your IT assets, and you need to get it in writing.
How to Dispose of Hard Drives
Wiping a hard drive, called software sanitation, is a popular method for hard drive disposal. It means that you are overwriting the drive with nonsense or random data. It is almost foolproof, but there are some vulnerabilities that some information could still survive, and that fact is why we here at AccuShred don’t feel wiping your hard drives is enough. A physically destroyed hard drive is impossible to retrieve information from. This is the fail-safe method. Not every company has the capability to shred and recycle a hard drive, but many do, and these are the companies who should get your business.
What to Do with Old Computer Parts
You can’t just throw your computer away, even if you have wiped all the data and restored it to factory settings. There are ways to recycle your old computer parts, and your shredding company can help you. Your computer can be broken down to ensure that no data can be retrieved and the parts can be recycled in an eco-friendly way.
What are the Risks if Your IT Assets are Handled Improperly?
There are definite risks for careless disposal of IT assets. These assets, which most likely hold sensitive information, are still susceptible to a data breach. Someone with the right skills and equipment can find a hard drive from years ago and extract information that can compromise your business and your clients.
You know your data is sensitive, so you understand the importance of hiring a company to help you handle data destruction correctly. By knowing what to look for in a shredding company and asking the right questions about their processes, you will know that your information is safe and your company data is protected. To learn more about our data destruction services, contact us at AccuShred today.