Hard drives destruction: Why is it important to destroy your hard drives?

There is an increasing number of data storage devices in businesses and home users. In addition, there has been an increase, within companies, of new electronic devices that are constantly online. All of these objects are connected together and communicate simultaneously with, as a result, new threats for the loss and theft of confidential data.
The number of devices is constantly increasing: laptops, desktops, servers, tablets, telephones, USB sticks, printers, etc. Data is spread everywhere, sometimes even without the users knowing it. All these machines become obsolete sooner or later and end up not being used anymore, or they may even end up being resold … In many cases, that’s when owners think about deleting all the data saved inside them, with the easiest method used being by formatting the drives.

Formatting drives or deleting information isn’t enough

Formatting a drive is an important step, but the data remains vulnerable to attacks by cybercriminals, who have in their possession powerful software tools capable of recovering information previously deleted.
Another important point is that of system updates. Each electronic device provider offers regular updates of their systems. Indeed, the latter can fill some security gaps or bring new features. However, a few years after the release of these machines, the updates cease and it is at this point that loopholes are unearthed by hackers, who will take a malicious pleasure to break into data storage devices to steal or destroy the information and potentially use it for fraudulent or criminal purposes.

Data destruction is the responsibility of everyone

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of personal information. This topic shouldn’t be neglected and companies need to take the necessary steps to avoid any risk. An issue with a data breach can be very expensive, both financially and for the image of a company.
This is the reason why it is very important to permanently destroy confidential data on hard drives whenever the data is no longer needed or when the equipment becomes obsolete so that it doesn’t fall in the wrong hands.

Call Creative IT’s Data Destruction division on 020 7064 4996 to find out more about destroying your hard drives safely.