Companies often handle data security by simply clearing disks. However, as recovery systems become more advanced, it becomes more difficult to keep critical information from landing in the wrong hands.
Many businesses are now hiring data destruction firms to physically shred their old hard drives. That way, you do not have to worry about your Dallas business facing a serious security breach. So, what does hard drive shredding entail? Here is what you should know:
Why is Hard Drive Shredding necessary?
- Destroy Important Information – Data thieves are getting savvier than ever. To make matters worse, with roughly 78% of all wiped drives still retaining accessible data, you need to have a fail-safe in place to ensure the security of your business.
- Compliance – Bending and drill presses were the original methods of hard drive destruction. As the thieves grew smarter and learned to trace the information left behind on undamaged hard drives, this is just no longer a foolproof option.
Shredding a hard drive will render it unreadable. That is why this method is compliant with both HIPAA and NIST 800-88 regulations.
You can ensure optimal security by seeking out an on-site shredding company. That is because such companies ensure that the custody of the data is never turned over to the contractor.
Don’t Forget to Recycle!
E-waste is one of the fastest-growing trash problems on the planet. Landfills are quickly reaching their capacity, even right here in Dallas. Fortunately, old drives contain several reclaimable materials, which most data destruction companies recycle.
Leave Shredding to the Professionals
Shredding hard drives is not a job just anyone should undertake. Just because you were able to get away with taking a hammer to your personal hard drive does not mean you want to take on your company’s armada of hardware.
Professional hard drive shredding companies have the necessary equipment to dispose of sensitive information safely. They can also ensure limited exposure to toxins and compliance to health codes and federal regulations.
Amateurs attempting to attack numerous disk drives usually end up calling data sanitation experts who will have to charge extra to clean up a potentially dangerous mess. It is best to let the pros handle it from the start.
Here is what else you should know about hard drive shredding:
Thorough Supervision
Someone from the hard drive shredding company will supervise the transition of the drives from the building to an on-site shredding truck. If the drives contain third-party information, this ensures that you are following federal statutes regarding witnessing the data’s destruction. If your drives only contain IP, this helps ensure asset security.
Properly Labeling Data
Drives need to be scanned and inventoried so that the data being destroyed can be identified. This way, a certification or report of destruction (see below) can be created once a named device is terminated.
Federal media sanitation compliance, NIST 800-88, requires serial numbers of each drive and its linked computer.
Terminate!
Drive shredders are basically an industrial version of paper shredders and create a much more thorough form of destruction. That said, drive shredders are not as speedy as paper shredders. It takes roughly one hour to shred 500 drives.
Recording the Damage
A NIST 800-88 certificate of destruction must include the company’s name, location, and witness. Drives and source computers should be listed by serial numbers, make and model as well as their types and quantity of digital data eliminated.
Bottom Line: Hard Drive Shredding Ensures Finality
In the end, it just makes sense to dispose of potentially sensitive data before the wrong people get hold of it. That said, there is a right way to go about doing this, and that way is hard drive shredding. Simply tossing old hard drives into the trash guarantees nothing. For more information on hard drive shredding, call us or schedule an appointment with us today!
You can also contact us for further services provided by UER which include: data destruction, data security, decommissioning and liquidation, electronic recycling/ commodity value processing, information technology asset disposition, paper shredding services and shredding services, and warehousing pallet storage, and added value services.