Security Measures & Data Protection Regulations

What Does Data Security Refer to?

Data security is an important and ongoing concern, but it’s taken on even greater importance recently for another reason: e-waste.

As technology keeps improving what our cell phones, laptops, home computers and other devices can do, there’s been a rush to replace older, outdated versions with the ones offering the most sophisticated new technological advances. That means their old devices are being tossed aside, even thrown out with their trash.

Your Device Still Has Residual Data

And what far too many electronics users fail to recognize is the enormous risk they’re taking by doing that, since their personal information remains on that device even if it’s no longer in use — and even if they think they’ve deleted it and sent it to the Recycle Bin. Most people are not aware of how hard it is to completely erase data from a computer’s hard drive. If hard drives are not properly destroyed, hackers still have ready access to your personal information, including your passwords or credit card numbers.

E-Waste and Data Security Go Hand-In-Hand

Hard drives are easy to salvage, then can be sold to organized criminals who know how to unlock the barriers preventing access to the data on the drives. Not surprisingly, states like New York have banned e-waste from going into landfills, with data security among the concerns. Even your cracked iPhone has quite a bit about the private details of your life stored on it. And dumpster-diving thieves love the data you’re leaving behind. There was even a report out of Reno, Nevada that identity thieves had run a fake Craigslist ad claiming to be offering free e-waste recycling, that was actually using it to scam people out of their electronic data. Criminals are well aware of how many treasures are on your devices. And even if you’ve deleted everything off your unwanted gadgets and wiped your drives, savvy hackers know how to recover lost data, and there are even software programs designed to extract data from deleted files. That’s why professional recycling firms will not only dissemble your old devices so that the parts with value can be reused, they’re also your security experts who can ensure that if you’ve left anything behind on those devices, it won’t stay there.

Are Businesses Vulnerable as Well?

It’s not just the individual owners of e-waste who are in danger of handing their personal information over to data thieves. Businesses that frequently replace company laptops, personal computers and office cell phones are vulnerable as well if they treat that equipment as trash. And as any business knows, if outdated devices or disks contains personal information about clients or employees gets into the wrong hands, that opens up a massive financial and legal nightmare for the firm. For businesses that often find it necessary to dispose of aging electronics, whether it’s old computers, monitors, printers or cellphones, taking these obsolete electronics out to the curb is no longer an option. And while some companies may try to destroy their data in-house, it’s better to hire professionals with the skills and specialized equipment needed to eradicate data and destroy hard drives. The bottom line is that the e-waste challenge is here to stay, and has become a part of doing business for companies large and small. What companies need to invest in is a failsafe system for protecting its reputation, sensitive company data, information about their workers, and the identity of its customers. Because any business that has become connected opens itself up to the risk of a security breach.

Conclusion

E-waste presents a serious security threat to individuals and businesses. Data erasure is the strongest way to fight back, but most individuals and companies have no idea how to go about it. The solution is to turn those devices over to an experienced firm like E_waste Aus, which has years of experience performing environmentally friendly recycling of electronic products. The team at E-Waste Aus will disassemble these items into component parts, and the ones that still have value can be sold for reuse. Other parts are used for metals recovery. Everything within your devices gets recycled. More importantly, they’re your data security experts. By recycling with E-Waste Aus, you won’t have to worry about the data you left behind on those hard drives. E-Waste Aus offers complete data destruction of all drives with their in-house data elimination processes. E-Waste Aus provides the secure destruction of personal, sensitive, proprietary, or classified information, and they issue Certificates of Destruction and Certificates of Data Sanitization upon request.

What We DO

  • We provide secure data destruction services and ensure complete protection of any sensitive and personal information stored on electronic devices.
  • Digital storage media can contain employee records, business critical information and other private and confidential data. As such, we destroy data on every individual hard drive, tape drive, flash memory device and solid state storage media contained within assets for disposal. All data destruction is performed to the highest military-grade standards, and total data destruction is verified after wiping. In some cases, software-based data destruction does not completely destroy all data. For these items, the media is physically destroyed to ensure complete data security.
  • All data storage devices are wiped, or physically destroyed and completely recycled for their metal content. Additional levels of data destruction are available
  • Go through a careful process to ensure the data and commercial in confidence information is secure.
  • Hard drives and other storage media are removed from the equipment for wiping and/or physical destruction. The drives are securely stored prior to physical destruction.
  • Asset tags and identifiers are removed from the equipment to ensure customer privacy and any sensitive commercial documentation is shredded in a commercial shredder ready to be sent to a paper recycling company.
  • The equipment is assessed for the appropriate recycling stream to avoid double handling and the most efficient method of disposal.
  • Onsite Data Erasure - This typically includes TES deploying technicians to customers location and wiping the storage devices in accordance with a regimented operating procedures. For small or remote locations, they have the option of providing software licenses and training via an easy to use platform and process.
In either case the data overwrite is performed to exceed the NIST 800-88 standard (supersedes Department of Defense 5220-22-M standard) and it ensures that 100% of sectors are overwritten. Drives with damaged sectors that cannot be overwritten are removed and shredded. Proof of successful completion of the data erasure is provided through a certificate of data destruction that is generated once the device is successfully wiped. use data destruction software that is compliant with US Government standards and comes with a data destruction certificate.

Type of Data Wipes:

  • Single Pass Wipe; Suitable for the general user, Hard drives receive a standard Single Pass Wipe.
  • 3 Pass Wipe; Suitable for standard businesses, the 3 Pass Wipe is recommended for those wanting to erase confidential information.
  • 7 Pass Wipe: Suitable for government and private businesses that handle sensitive information, the 7 Pass Wipe is recommended for those wanting to erase highly confidential information.
  • Physical Destruction; The ultimate in hard drive destruction. The hard drive will be shredded