It’s easy to forget about old hard drives. Once your employees circulate them from usage or replace an old computer with something faster, they can seem like they just disappear from sight. But usually, they aren’t gone. They’re stored away in a closet or file room.
Whether you’re reorganizing for 2019 or a story about information theft put you on the alert, don’t let old hard drives sit in storage. Destroy them. Here’s why that should be on of your top priorities when you get back to the office in the new year:
1. Physically stored information is a huge liability for your company.
Almost everything is getting shifted to the cloud, and there are dozens of good reasons for that. Security is at the top of the list. It’s hard to gain unauthorized access to information stored in the cloud. Even if someone does reach it, you and the security company will be alerted about it.
That’s not true if you store the information on a local server or hard drive. It’s easier to gain access to a building than a secure online file storage system. You also won’t know about the leak until it’s far too late.
2. New employees won’t know what the old hard drives are.
If the old technology is left to stack up for too long, most of the employees who know why it was stored away won’t be at the company anymore. New employees tasked with cleaning out old supplies, especially if your company has been acquired, won’t go through the hard drives and destroy them. They might not even electronically wipe the information, which half-heartedly hides the information. They might just throw away the hardware where anyone can get to it.
3. The information isn’t gone unless you destroy it.
Electronically wiping old hard drives isn’t enough. The data is still there. The changes your company’s programs and custom software made to the root function of the computer are still printed in the hard drive.
You have to destroy it.
Every single part of that sentence should be emphasized. It has to be you, it has to be physical destruction, and it’s not optional. Go to Phiston Technologies to get the crusher tool you need.
