IT asset disposal does not come for free, but improperly disposing of your company’s outdated IT assets can cost your business its reputation, as well as the astronomical fines which can now be imposed under the GDPR.
If data bearing devices are re-sold, recycled, or simply kept in storage without first being sanitised to a professional standard, your business is at serious risk of suffering a costly data breach.
In our latest article, we explain how IT asset disposal can help to protect your company data.
Data Sanitisation
The most obvious way ITAD can help to protect your company data, is in the destruction, disposal or recycling of your IT assets.
Regardless of what you intend to do with your data bearing devices once they reach the end of their lifecycle, it is imperative that the data stored on the devices is erased securely.
There are two main IT asset disposal methods which can be used to ensure the security of your end of life company data:
Data wiping/overwriting – Data wiping is often the most popular form of data erasure, as it allows for the resale of devices once the data contained on them has been securely removed. Data erasure software such as that provided by Blancco deletes data securely, and provides a report to confirm erasure for your records. Not all drives can be wiped, however, and in some cases other methods must be employed.
Data Shredding – Data shredding is a mechanical process, which destroys the IT asset, and makes the data contained on the devices irretrievable, by crushing, chopping and shredding the devices into small pieces. Following this process, the shredded remains of the devices are sent off for further refinement. Unlike data wiping, data shredding does not allow for the resale of devices once the data contained on them has been securely removed.
Tracking and Auditing
Paying a third party to dispose of your ITAD assets is one thing, but a fully qualified and responsible ITAD vendor should be able to provide you with a full audit trail, so you have an up to date record of where your assets have been, how they got there, and how they were disposed of.
This is crucial if one of your IT assets is later found to have been improperly disposed of, perhaps leading to a data breach. An audit trail will cover your company legally, and prove that your assets were entrusted to the care of a third party for the purposes of destruction or sanitisation.
A fully qualified ITAD partner will also be able to provide you with a complete chain of custody for your IT assets, showing where the assets have travelled to and from using GPS tracking, and advising on whether any third party vendors have been used in the supply chain.
With over 25 years industry experience, tier1 are proud to be the UK’s most accredited ITAD supplier. We possess the skills, accreditations and experience to handle our clients’ data with the care they deserve, and to dispose of it responsibility and legally.
Contact us today on 0161 777 1000 or visit https://www.tier1.com to find out how we can help you dispose of your data safely and reliably.
