Ensuring Secure Data Sanitization of Recycled Computers

One of the core responsibilities of any IT team is the protection of company and employee data. Data leaks can not only lead to bad publicity, but legal problems as well. This poses an issue when it comes to data bearing assets that are no longer essential to the company and are deemed as surplus.

How can IT teams ensure their data is properly sanitized? One option would be to clear data in-house. However, when trying to deploy new devices this can be time consuming and cost prohibitive. A better solution may be partnering with an ITAD company or recycling partner that has a track record of sticking to industry standards for data sanitization.

In the last ten years, storage mediums have proliferated. While in the past, a spinnging magnetic platter was the standard, the industry has shifted to flash storage in the form of solid state drives. A typical overwrite with ones and zeroes may not be the preferred method of data sanitization. Furthermore, because these storage devices are not magnetic media, physical destruction with a degausser is not an option.

Emerging technologies such as cyrptographic erases have been developed to address some of these shortcomings. As the amount of data that can be fit into a physical space has decreased, so have standards for shredding such media to ensure any data is not recoverable. A trusted ITAD partner may be better suited for knowing which methods to apply to different storage mediums.

When you have confidence in your ITAD or recycling parnter, you will be able to rest easy knowing that they take the security of your data as serious as you do.