As multinational companies build brands around the world and store data of their customers across borders, there are increasing risks for storing information that passes between systems and data centers.
Recently, 500 million customers had their data mined by what is being alleged as a state-sponsored operation to gather intelligence. The business in question is now under the scrutiny of law enforcement and risks a number of lawsuits in the process.
The problem of data storage and compliance is evident, and the costs of improper data handling and disposal are very high. Incidents such as these can lead to reputational damage and further operational costs to fix systems, and companies now have to take their data protection very seriously to avoid the risks of damaging litigation.
As data is becoming a commodity that is being used by criminal organizations and governments for a variety of purposes, companies need to consider how they manage their IT systems, handle data, and remove old data from existing systems or legacy systems that are no longer viable.
With upgrades in IT happening in the corporate world every day, it is essential that businesses create a data protection policy and invest in systems that incorporate degaussing to erase old data so that they are no longer at risk.
Forgotten data, in the form of old hard drives stacked on shelves in offices, or even in old servers no longer in use at a datacenter presents a high risk should it fall into the wrong hands, get accessed by rogue employees, foreign intelligence contractors or other criminal organizations. This data can be exploited through the basic vulnerabilities that many companies have yet to address. With millions of hard drives still sitting in offices with old data, and potentially confidential emails and customer data waiting to be accessed, companies simply can’t afford to do nothing.
By ensuring data is erased and disposed of, companies minimize risks and are able to safely recycle their old hard drives and tapes in a secure way. This can be achieved through the use of hard drive and tape degaussing. Hard drive degaussers can be used to magnetically erase data from old hard disks that are no longer used. Should these hard drives be accessed in the future, it is likely companies won’t even be aware they have been taken, or will be slow to respond, with no visibility on what data has been accessed. Therefore, being able to audit the destruction and removal of old data from hard drives is equally important.
Explore what data degaussing can do you for business and our range of hard drive degaussers on offer - ensuring your business complies with data protection laws, erases data that is no longer in use, and safely recycles hard drives risk free.
