Every office has (electronic) skeletons in its closets: dusty boxes full of answering machines and fax machines, massive desktop computers that were shuffled into the storage room to make space for new laptops and promptly forgotten. Maybe your office has multiple closets stuffed with ghosts of technology past, like broken telephones and outdated copiers.
While some business trends are cyclical, technology isn’t. Old computers and other devices don’t serve a function in a modern business. It’s time to clear out the old to make room for the new — without sacrificing security.
Security Concerns in the Storage Room
Would you feel comfortable letting strangers in to rifle through your filing cabinets and poke around on your computer? If not, you can’t dispose of unused electronics by tossing them into a dumpster or leaving them out on the curb. Just as technology has progressed, so too have the skills of the thieves who mine old devices for data. But it doesn’t take expert hackers to get potentially sensitive information off of discarded hard drives.
In 2010, a CBS news reporter accompanied a digital security expert to a warehouse, where they bought four used copiers. When the security expert analyzed the machines’ hard drives, he was able to download thousands of files — images of the documents that previous users had copied. He found images of checks, Social Security numbers and 300 pages of medical records, among other sensitive files.
If your office is holding onto copiers made after 2002, they may contain images of pay stubs, financial documents and employee medical records. And that’s just copiers.
Discarded computers and cell phones may contain all the information that a dedicated identify thief needs to target your employees, employers and clients. One 200 GB hard drive can contain the equivalent of up to 40,000 file boxes of information. It only takes one compromised hard drive to cause irreparable harm to your company and reputation.
Of course, you could get lucky. Maybe you’ll fill a dumpster with hard drives, copiers, fax machines and other unused devices and nothing harmful will come of it. That’s a big risk to take when there’s an easy and convenient way to dispose of these electronics.
Clean Out the Closets
Security’s not the only reason to clear out the closets, drawers and storage rooms where you store old electronics. If your office has accumulated more than a few boxes of discarded devices, you may be holding onto them just because you don’t have the time, energy or necessary manpower to get rid of them.
Northeast Data Destruction has the solution you need. We’ll pick up your unused office equipment, giving you back your storage space and saving you the trouble of maneuvering it out of your office. At our NAID “AAA” Certified document shredding facility, we’ll destroy your devices quickly and securely, so none of your company’s sensitive information ever gets into the hands of identity thieves.
Whatever your office is holding onto, we know how to destroy it completely. Let Northeast Data Destruction give you the peace of mind that comes with knowing your company’s data is safe and private. Contact us today to get started!