Every company has to get rid of old equipment, and that can sometimes be more complicated than it seems. Many things can just be thrown away, but some things can’t. For example, some electronics can’t simply be sent to landfills. But it gets even more complicated. It’s easy to forget that the old equipment you’re throwing away has sensitive data stored inside. Luckily, all of that data is only on the hard drive, but it’s imperative that you don’t just throw it away. Here are a few of the things that can happen if you leave your hard drives in the trash.
Theft
This might be the worst-case scenario for your data, and even for your company. Once something is in the trash, it is very easily stolen. Thieves know that any number of people might be interested in your sensitive data and that it is worth a lot of money. Whether they manipulate the data themselves or sell it to someone who can, you definitely don’t want your data to fall into thieves’ hands.
Sold to competitors
Unfortunately, many companies are not completely honest. In fact, some will do whatever it takes to get ahead. This can include stealing data from competitors. What would happen to your company if a rival was able to retrieve a list of all of your clients and their contact information?
Sold to hackers
Not all information is relevant to hackers, but chances are good that most of your data is relevant to someone. If you store any kind of payment information, or even identifying information, on any of your computers, even if it is encrypted, hackers can retrieve the information and use it for their own gain.
Obviously, all of these situations would be detrimental to your company and its success. Luckily, there is a solution. All you have to do is have your hard drive crushed. This destroys the data and makes it completely inaccessible. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us. We’re happy to answer all of your questions.
