14 DAY TRIAL // Recycling or disposing of computers before making sure that all sensitive data has been removed from them can lead to a lot of trouble. Recently, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office fined NHS Surrey after computers containing personal data ended up being sold on eBay.
To prevent such data breaches, organizations can turn to services such as the ones offered by BCD Electro.
The IT, telecom, networking and hospital equipment recycling firm has launched a new service that uses an in-house proprietary disk wiping system to make sure no information is left on hard drives that are about to be recycled.
The digital data destruction system conforms to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for media sanitization. The method ensures that data is erased even from hidden or locked areas.
BCD Electro notes that it’s important for companies that rely on electronics recyclers for data breach protection to make sure the process is auditable.
The firm highlights the fact that the cost of data erasure is minimal compared to data breaches which, on average, cost companies $5 million (€3.8 million) per breach.