Data privacy is the company’s responsibility. Unfortunately, it requires a great deal of time, money, effort, patience, and knowledge to do it right. If your company’s data isn’t secure, it can be used for fraud, identity theft, and other malicious purposes.
As such, companies must ensure that they destroy their digital data in a way it cannot be retrieved again. There are many methods to destroy the data, including erasing it from a hard drive or overwriting it with new information so that former data cannot be extracted.
Your company can hire secure data destruction in Malaysia professionals to ensure this doesn’t happen. Here are the do and don’ts of data destruction:
Do: Have Proper Digital Destruction Protocols in Place
Lack of clear policies can lead to the loss of valuable information that can be used by criminals, hackers, or other bad actors to commit fraud or abuse.
For example, in the case of a data breach, it could be possible for bad actors to extract sensitive information from the hard drive. If this happens, your company will be a risk of cybercrimes.
The best way to prevent this is to have a protocol for destroying the digital data and overwriting it with new information so that the original data cannot be extracted from the hard drive.
To meet these requirements, you will need to ensure that your company has a clear policy on how data is destroyed, eliminated from the hard drive, and standard practice for overwriting the hard drive with new information so that old data cannot be extracted from it.
In addition, you will also need to make sure your company has an inventory of all sensitive information stored on all hard drives in your company.
Your company should also have a system for archiving digital data and ensuring that old data is never destroyed while implementing an audit process. This will keep employees from using digital data inappropriately.
Don’t: Smash Equipment
Attempting to destroy hard drives through degaussing, drilling holes, and smashing them is an ineffective and dangerous practice.
This is because these methods may damage the hard drive and render it useless, and if the data is too large to fit in a single file, it will not be destroyed.
Digital secure data destruction companies have the experience of destroying data without damaging the hard drive. They also use methods that conform to ISO standards.
They’ll ensure all sensitive information is removed from the hard drive before destruction when destroying digital data.
This will keep hackers from using that information to extract personal details about your company or employees and keep your company’s operations secure.
Alternatively, you can use a secure delete function to destroy digital data and ensure it’s recoverable.
A secure delete function will destroy all copies of digital data after it has been erased, making it impossible for hackers to use this information to steal confidential information from your company or employees.
Do: Use Eco-friendly Methods
To get rid of e-waste, it’s important to use environmentally friendly methods. Recycling office equipment, such as printers and computers, is one of the best ways to eliminate this waste.
E-waste contains toxic chemicals like lead that can leach into groundwater or poison wildlife if thrown away in landfills. Companies need to recycle responsibly so they don’t contribute to pollution.
The best part is that you don’t have to do this yourself. There are professionals who can help you recycle your e-waste so that everyone can be happy and safe.
Don’t: Go Against Regulatory Compliances
Another thing to consider when getting rid of electronic waste is the hard drive data containing confidential information about your customers and employees.
If you don’t destroy all the data on an employee’s hard drive, your company could be fined for violating regulations. This could cost your company a lot of money, and it could hurt your reputation.
In this case, it is important to make sure you are destroying all copies of digital data and not leaving any backups of the files.
If you want to make sure that your company’s data is safe, the best way to do so is by meeting with a professional from a reputable data recovery service. This will help you determine if there are any important documents on your hard drive or backup media.
Sometimes companies neglect backing up files. This can lead to lost revenue and damages in terms of litigation when information becomes public knowledge through leaks not created internally.
The Bottom Line
You cannot afford to ignore the growing amount of electronic waste that is being generated. It is important to develop a plan to deal with this waste, and it is best to do so in a professional manner.
It is also important for you to make sure that your company’s data is safe, and you should consider using a data recovery service if you want this to happen. In the end, it will be best for your company’s reputation if you choose this course of action.
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