e is discarded; leaving the existing data vulnerable. Protecting personal data and digital information doesn’t mean it has to be a burden on your existing IT procedures but rather an investment in security for the benefit of the company and to protect those who interact with it.
Devices subject to sanitisation
Devices subject to data sanitisation requirements include computers, desktops, laptops and servers as well as external storage media. It may also include items like network switches, routers cameras and other IoT devices. Any type of storage media containing personal data should be subject to safe sanitisation procedures and should include any device that contains information you want to keep private and confidential. Hard drives, SSDs, flash media of various types and formats, USB drives and magnetic tapes represent only a small sample of media to consider. A relatively new category of storage but an especially critical one is mobile devices.
Smartphones and tablets now offer considerable storage space and are considered standard equipment for most employees. According to data obtained by Statcounter, mobile devices are now more popular than desktops globally. It is therefore imperative when business mobile devices are withdrawn, to include them in the secure sanitisation process. It is important to note that smartphones and tablets contain the same information that you can find on devices such as desktop and laptop computers (e.g. email and documents) and even more data if we consider SMSs, phonebook and call logs.
Don’t open yourself up to risk
The introduction of global data privacy laws has attempted to standardise and update the protection of personal data to face the new challenges of the digital era. It is, therefore, critical that organisations put secure erasure processes in place for end-of-life media that is due to be decommissioned/recycled, but also for through-life data during the regular lifecycle of devices.
For businesses, the easiest way to implement this is to set a budget aside at the time of purchasing any new hardware, and then utilise the service when the device needs to be disposed of or reused. Businesses may also decide to outsource this service to qualified third parties.
Overlooking end-of-life data and the incorrect management of data procedures, including the disposal of computers and IT assets containing personal data can become a serious threat to the security of company information; it also opens the company up to a potential risk for penalties and breaches of privacy legislation, which can cause irreparable damage to the businesses image and reputation.
Philip Bridge, President, Ontrack