What is Secure Data Destruction and How Does it Work?
With cyber threats and data breaches on the rise, it’s crucial that businesses take proactive measures to safeguard their sensitive data. A key aspect of data security is secure data destruction, also known as sanitisation.
Not only does secure data destruction protect your customers, patients, and staff, but it also helps to maintain compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
It is common for businesses to think that GDPR only applies to personal data that is used for sales and marketing purposes. However, an essential part of GDPR involves the secure destruction of all personal data.
In this blog, we share everything you need to know about secure data destruction, including the different methods that can be used, as well as which businesses need to use them.
What is Secure Data Destruction?
Secure data destruction refers to the process of permanently and irreversibly removing sensitive information from storage devices, so it is irrecoverable. This includes electronic devices such as computers, hard drives, servers, and mobile devices.
The reason why this process is necessary is that simply deleting files or formatting a device does not guarantee data removal, as traces of the information may remain intact and accessible.
Secure data destruction ensures that confidential data is completely erased, which minimises the risk of unauthorised access or data recovery.
What Methods are Used to Securely Destroy Data?
There are several methods that can be used to achieve secure data destruction. Here are the most common techniques that are used:
Data wiping
Data wiping or data erasure is a method that involves overwriting the entire storage device with random or predetermined patterns of data. Multiple passes are carried out to ensure the complete removal of all existing information.
Degaussing
This method is primarily used for magnetic media such as hard drives and tapes, degaussing is when a strong magnetic field is used to erase data. This process disrupts the magnetic domains on the storage medium, which makes the information unreadable.
Shredding
For physical media such as hard drives, CDs, DVDs and tapes, shredding is an effective method that involves physically destroying the storage device rendering it irreparable and ensuring complete data destruction.
Cryptographic erasure
This method uses encryption to make the storage device unreadable. By destroying the encryption key, the information becomes inaccessible and effectively destroyed.
Which Businesses Require Secure Data Destruction?
There are numerous industries and organisations that handle sensitive data and are legally required to ensure its secure destruction. Here are a few examples:
Healthcare organisations
Hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers deal with a vast amount of patient records, medical histories, and personal health information. Secure data destruction is crucial to comply with privacy regulations and protect patient confidentiality.
Financial institutions
Banks, credit card companies, and financial organisations store vast volumes of customer data including account information and transaction details, which makes secure data destruction essential to prevent identity fraud. It also helps to ensure the trust and confidence of customers.
Legal firms
Law firms deal with confidential client information, case details and legal documentation. Without adequate data security measures, client privacy and protection are at risk.
Where Can Sensitive Data Be Found?
While the majority of sensitive data is stored in places and devices you would normally expect, such as hard drives, server hard disks and online network-based storage areas, it’s important to be aware of the storage capacity of seemingly innocuous devices you may use in your operation, such as printers and scanners. These devices often have internal memory where sensitive documents can be stored and accessed if not disposed of properly, which is why they need to be included in the process of secure data destruction.
What Happens if You Fail to Carry Out Adequate Data Protection
Data protection is a major part of GDPR and failing to comply can result in serious repercussions for your business.
The most significant consequences of non-compliance are substantial financial penalties, with the potential to reach up to 4% of your total annual revenue. The negative publicity surrounding GDPR acting against you can also have a devastating effect on your business reputation, causing customers to lose trust in your services.
Additionally, if you experience a data breach and it’s proven that you failed to conduct the security measures that could have prevented it, you could end up facing legal action from individuals who have had their data stolen.
IT Asset Disposal Services from CAB IT Services
At CAB IT Services, we understand the importance of taking proactive measures towards ensuring the security of your sensitive data.
That’s why provide a comprehensive range of solutions to ensure the secure destruction of sensitive data, helping individuals and organisations to protect their valuable information and maintain data privacy.
If you have any questions about our services or would like to partner with us to ensure GDPR compliance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team today.
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Most businesses think GDPR only refers to personal data used for marketing and sales purposes, but…
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