Welcome to Dspoz-IT, Inc

Data security is a critical concern, yet many  companies don’t have a thorough policy to properly destroy data at the  end of the IT asset lifecycle, which is a lurking problem.

Last year, the average total cost of a data breach was $3.62  million – or $141 per lost or stolen record, according to Ponemon  Institute. Many companies often focus their concern on potential fines.  However, the largest financial impact comes from the cost of cleaning up  after a data breach and the loss of customer confidence that results in  reduced revenue. 

IDC forecasts that the global datasphere will  grow ten-fold to 163 zettabytes (or a trillion gigabytes) by 2025. Our  use of storage is growing exponentially, and with it, so are the risks and potential financial losses.

Data security is always among the  highest priorities for any company. However, what happens to  technology assets at the end of its life is rarely at the top of the  list. Often customers’ specifications for large-scale refresh projects  contain literally hundreds of pages of requirements around new equipment  and then, at the very end, a single statement saying, “All legacy  equipment being replaced must be disposed of in a secure and  environmentally friendly manner.”
 

At the other end of the scale are companies obsessed with data security. They demand services where the security level is  appropriate for the handling of highly sensitive government data when,  in reality, the data could at worst disclose information readily  available on the internet.

There’s much to consider. Should data  be destroyed at your own site, or is it OK to do it at the ITAD  provider’s site? If you are shipping equipment, what level of logistics  services do you need? 

Three considerations include:

• Do you require asset scanning to enable full asset tracking?
• Do you need to vet logistics staff?
• Should vehicles be dedicated or shared?

Then there’s the question of which data destruction methods to use. Various data destruction methods have varying levels of security and cost. 

Options include:  A single-pass or multiple-pass data wipe: drives can be reused and provide a residual value return

• Degaussing: no ability to resell the drive and no visual indicator  that it has worked, but a cheaper alternative to shredding when  performed at customer sites
• Crushing/drilling/pinning: low-cost options that show physical  evidence that they have been performed. However, these methods destroy  the residual value of the unit and the data is still present on the  platters despite their not being able to spin up
• On-site shredding: the most secure form of data destruction, but it is expensive and destroys any residual value

What’s important to understand is that one size does not fit all when it comes to IT disposal.  What suits one company may not suit another, and there is a good chance  that different business units within the same company will have  different needs.

Allow Dpoz-IT to offer you choice relative to your Asset disposition needs. 

Some say that physically destroying hard drives at your own site is always the best option. For very highly sensitive data, it may be. But this isn’t always the case. 

Note: On-site shredding guarantees security only if you watch every single hard drive go into the shredder yourself. 

Since  it can be expensive to shred hard drives at customer sites, companies  often stockpile large numbers of drives to be shredded at once to cut  cost. However, the longer you keep data around, the more chance there is  of something getting lost or someone stealing it. It’s likely safer to  choose an alternative data destruction method if it reduces the time the  data remains on the drives.