February 05, 2018

Protect Your Data and Records with a Hard Drive Shredder

By: Eric Buhlman

It seems like every week a new data breach is uncovered.

As a consumer, it's frustrating to feel like your private information is being handled negligently. But as a manager or business owner, are you taking confidentiality seriously?

One of the highest risks for identity theft is the improper disposal of electronic data. And when it comes to keeping your information out of the wrong hands, there's no better way than a hard drive shredder.

What Is a Hard Drive Shredder?

Most businesses use a paper shredder to dispose of their sensitive document.

A hard drive shredder does the same thing for your hard drive. Even if you think you've deleted confidential information, it can be retrieved with the right software.

Most hard drive shredders have a variety of capabilities. On top of hard drives, they can destroy CDs and DVDs, USB drives, magnetic tapes, and more.

For companies with high volumes of electronics to destroy, these machines can shred up to 2,000 items per hour.

Advantages of Purchasing Hard Drive Shredders

If you're thinking about buying a shredder for your office, here's what you need to know:

Shredding Is the Safest Way to Protect Hard Drive Data

Many people already realize that deleting files won't protect their data security. But many businesses use methods that are less effective than they think.

Formatting a hard drive seems secure, but the right software can still retrieve files.

Some people try to destroy their drive themselves by bending, piercing, or burning it. But in many cases, you won't destroy it well enough that information can't be retrieved.

Avoid Chain of Custody Risks

There are services that will shred your hard drive for a fee. But you're putting your trust in the company and all their employees who will handle your drive before destroying it. Each step in the chain of custody is a data breach risk.

Having your own shredder, on the other hand, eliminates this risk factor.

Hard Drive Shredding Services Can Be Costly

As we mentioned, many professional shredding services will destroy hard drives as well. But in this case, you'll pay a fee for every hard drive. Many services cost about $10 per drive.

While $10 doesn't sound expensive, this price is typically for bulk disposals of 20 or more hard drives. If you have hard drives sitting around for days or weeks until you accumulate enough for bulk shredding, you're risking a data break each day.

While hard drive shredders can be expensive initially, they quickly pay for themselves if you destroy many drives.

Data Breaches Have Serious Consequences

We've all seen the massive negative PR that comes from a data breach. In some cases, the consequences of insecure data are even more direct.

Certain types of data carry fines if they're not handled properly.

For instance, if you handle any health information, there are heavy fines for HIPAA non-compliance. Even if you aren't being intentionally negligent, penalties can reach $1.5 million per year.