Every enterprise, regardless of size, has a duty of care to protect sensitive data - especially customer personal data. Irrespective of regulatory concerns, reputational damage caused by leaked data is difficult to recover from. Immediate recovery actions are expensive too, as is strengthening security levels to prevent another breach.

The bottom line is that inadequate data security can cost a company a great deal of money, very unhappy customers who may never return, and disgruntled shareholders. One potential risk area is the disposal of IT assets and the data they contain. An inadequate policy or process leaves a company wide open to data leaks.

The Value Of Data

Commercial data has limited appeal in itself unless it is highly confidential research material or other information of value to competitors. Hackers could well be commissioned by unscrupulous third parties to inflict damage on your company by stealing data of any description, simply to disrupt operations.

Personal data, on the other hand, not only has value but leakage represents a potential breach of regulations, such as GDPR, along with extortion possibilities by criminals who could demand a ransom not to reveal that it has been leaked, for example.

What Is Secure IT Asset Disposal?

Recycling or repurposing are commendable objectives when equipment reaches end of life. That includes old infrastructure elements, as well as computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other user end-point devices. Any or all of them may contain data that can lead to disastrous results of fraud or theft if it falls into the wrong hands after control of the asset has been relinquished to a third party.

Secure disposal has several aspects that completely remove all risks relating to data security and all relevant legislation:

• Thorough and guaranteed data sanistisation to an appropriate level, even physical media destruction if required
• Provable chain of custody to satisfy any audit
• Asset register transaction history for each individual device
• Totally compliant recycling that more than meets environmental regulations

How Is Secure Asset Disposal Carried Out?

A professional service provider such as Absolute IT Asset Disposals Ltd will call to your premises to collect your unwanted equipment. As each unit is loaded into our collection van, it is immediately recorded in our asset database for tracking purposes and all identifying tags are removed.

Devices containing data are individually sanitised and media can be crushed into 5mm pieces if required. Onward disposal or recycling is then processed. Where equipment is being recycled, we dismantle it into its component parts, isolating the constituent elements such as metals and plastics for further environmentally friendly recycling by specialist companies.

When considering a disposal service provider, it is essential to preform due diligence as regards their standards and accreditation. That is your safeguard that ensures your IT assets are being passed to safe hands.

Find Out More

Contact us today to discuss your disposal requirements.