Data protection responsibilities and the end-of-life data risk?

Data protection is increasingly important with a greater focus than ever on how you keep your data safe. The introduction of GDPR in 2018 also heralded the start of placing responsibility firmly on the shoulders of the organisation storing the data and allows for daunting penalties for those that don’t comply. In addition to high financial penalties, there’s also the value of losing key corporate information such as new markets, new products or recipes, to a competitor organisation. This can cause extensive reputational damage and can cost the respect of the market.

During 2018, there was a lot written about how companies can more effectively store and protect files in the Cloud. Many businesses switched from paper files to digital files and set about encrypting and securing wherever possible.

However, there wasn’t a lot written about end-of-life digital equipment. This is an area that many businesses still don’t consider.

When a photo or image is scanned by a photocopier or fax machine, it stores an image on its Hard Disk Drive (HDD). Over time, these stored images become overwritten by other images, however, there’s always a bank of data sitting in the HDD of the device that could be accessible to anyone with a little bit of know-how and internet access.

The circular economy

Alongside this new focus on GDPR, there’s an increasing focus on the circular economy and the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling products to limit the impact we’re having on our planet. However, if your device is holding copies of recently photocopied trade secrets, or minutes that reveal critical data about employees, simply sending a copier to be reused elsewhere or even broken down for its constituent parts, is a risk to your business. There’s always the risk that the data stored on the HDD could be retrieved and used maliciously.

Many organisations don’t know what happens to their devices once they leave their premises, so the best way to fully protect the data held on the HDDs of these devices is through the removal of the HDD.

Data Removal Service – Protecting Your Data

We offer a data removal service that involves removing the HDD with all the data stored on it and giving it to the client to keep safe. This way, the client can be confident that their data won’t fall into the wrong hands. This provides peace of mind to the client, and enables devices to be freely reused or recycled without the risk of data leaks.

For more information on how we can help you protect your data, visit our website at www.asl-group.co.uk/ data-removal-service/ or contact us on 0345 207 7000.