October 22nd, 2018
Best Practices for Data Destruction
Data destruction is a vital process within the IT lifecycle. How companies dispose of – or recycle – their data and IT assets is an area fraught with security, legal and environmental issues. To mitigate these risks, it is important to follow best industry practices.
Choosing the correct company to dispose of your IT assets is a vital step in the process. This is because it is your legal responsibility – and not the data destruction company you hire – that will be held liable if a data breach occurs.
- Understand your data
Before your data and IT assets are destroyed, you must be aware of where your data is. While PCs, CDs, USB sticks, tablets, and company smartphones are an obvious location, data also sits on desktop phones, scanners and printers.
Furthermore, if your company allows employees to receive company email on their personal devices such as their smartphones, you are responsible for this data too. Therefore, a full inventory of where data sits in your organization is vital.
