If you’ve started your spring cleaning, chances are you’ve gone through paperwork and old banking information during the process. While you may realize the need to securely shred any documents containing sensitive information, are you protecting your electronic data as well?
While document shredding is imperative in protecting your identity and in fact is legally required as a business owner, those old hard drives taking up space in your storage room, can be a significant security threat if forgotten about. As you organize files to have shredded, be sure you are including your old hard drives in this pile as well.
Did you know that even one single hard drive can contain hundreds of files? Consider the confidential details that could be leaked unknowingly if these hard drives wind up in the recycling or trash bin. Remember that anyone with a basic understanding of technology and motive, can quickly retrieve data that was thought to be deleted. This can be done through software or apps that are widely available and used by fraudsters and cyber criminals on a regular basis.
How can you protect your business, employees, and clients? Take your security to the next level by outsourcing your hard drive destruction needs to a professional shredding provider, if you haven’t done so already.
Deleting a File Does Not Guarantee Data Removal
The primary issue here is a misunderstanding about what deleting data actually does. You would think that selecting a file and deleting destroys it, when, in fact, it does not do that at all.
Did you know that when you drop a file into your computer’s waste bin and then empty the waste bin, the file still exists on your hard drive? Deleting a file only hides it from the operating system. It’s not actually deleted until it’s overwritten by something else. Even so, there is strategic software out there that can be used to recover this information if the intent and desire to do so is there.
If this data is recovered without your knowledge and there happens to be personal information, finances, banking, etc, stored here, then you may be in a very vulnerable position of becoming a victim of fraud.
The Importance Behind Hard Drive Shredding
Throwing them Away Can be Damaging to Our Environment
Electronics can be extremely damaging to our environment. When hard drives make their way to our landfills, over time, they will leak toxic elements, like mercury and lead, which can be harmful to the environment and to humans.
It’s the Only Option that is 100% Safe and Reliable
Failing to have your hard drives professionally destroyed, could lead to many repercussions beyond having your identity stolen. These include loss of revenue and intellectual property, and expensive lawsuits and fines for non-compliance with the applicable privacy laws.
Hard drive destruction on the other hand, is the only form of data removal that guarantees your information is gone, forever. Because the device is destroyed physically, there is virtually zero chance that data could survive beyond the destruction process. The fragments leftover are collected and sent to a recycling facility where new products will eventually be made from these pieces.
ATI Secure Docs will work with you to create an ongoing plan for dealing with information or equipment which has reached its end of life cycle. Whether you are a small business, in the legal, government, healthcare, or education sector, we have worked with a variety of industries. Are you a resident in need of secure hard drive destruction? We service residents throughout Austin, Houston, and San Antonio as well. We’ll protect your sensitive documents and electronic data once and for all!