August 23, 2021

5 Reasons Businesses Should Invest in Hard Drive Destruction Services

In today’s technology-driven world, desktop computers and laptops are essential to every business. But eventually they need replacing – and the old hard drives and the confidential and sensitive digital information they hold – are a data goldmine for hackers. Just think of all the credit card information stored on a business’s servers, let alone the customer, sales, and staff records.

The fact is, many people believe their confidential information cannot be retrieved if the disposal process includes erasing, reformatting, wiping, or degaussing old hard drives. But this is not true – if the drives are physically intact, private, and confidential digital information can still be retrieved.

87% of businesses still, do not use a professional service to physically destroy old hard drives 1. These businesses are putting themselves at unnecessary risk of fines and reputational damage. In an age of strict data protection legislation and a backdrop of a growing number of professional and opportunistic data thieves looking to take advantage, it is important to dispose of your hard drives securely.

Shred-it’s Hard drive destruction services ensure data on old drives is 100% destroyed and following every hard drive destruction service, you will receive a Certificate of Destruction confirming that your material has been securely destroyed.

Here’s just five reasons why you should invest in Shred-it's hard drive destruction services.

1. Improper Destruction Could Lead to a Costly Data Breach

Even as far back as 2013, before the widespread introduction of data protection legislation, household name businesses have received six figure fines for failing to take the appropriate measures to protect legacy customer data on their hard drives.

Fast-forward to today and data breaches are not only more common, the fines and reputational damage that follow them are enough to ruin any business. Could you afford to $3.6 million to cover today’s average cost of a data breach?

2. Protect Confidential and Sensitive Information

Every business collects and holds data and lots of it. A single hard drive can contain thousands of private and confidential data files, especially in industries such as healthcare, legal services and financial services which deal with sensitive data every day. A secure hard drive disposal process protects staff, customer and business information.

3. Protect the Environment

Our commitment to protecting what matters doesn’t stop at securely destroying your hard drives and the data they hold. We comply with the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronics Equipment) directive and securely recycle all waste materials with local partners.

4. Ensure Compliance with Data Protection Legislation

In today’s data-driven business landscape, data is perceived by many to be the new oil. That is why data protection legislation is now widespread across the world – to ensure businesses are doing everything within their power to protect the public’s personal and confidential information.

5. Not All Hard Drive Destruction Processes Are Secure

If your current process simply involves erasing, reformatting, wiping, or degaussing old hard drives, then your business could still be vulnerable and a risk of a data breach. Only physical destruction ensures the data on an old hard drive is 100% irretrievable.

By securely destroying hard drives with a globally recognised hard drive destruction specialist, you are taking a significant step to protect your people, customers, and company, helping you stay compliant with data protection legislation. Stay Protected with Shred-it

While employees still use computers, laptops and even tablets, there will be a need to destroy old hard drives. Don’t become a data breach statistic. Book a hard drive destruction service today to protect your business.

 

1Source: Shred-it 2017 Security Tracker Survey United Kingdom powered by IPSOS