Cloud Migration Makes an Old Data Security Problem New Again

Excerpt:

Asset Security Measures
Enterprises are right to look to their used IT assets as a potential revenue source. For example, by tapping the resale market, my company generated $42 million for customers over just 12 months. Companies can leverage outsourcing providers to offload such hardware or handle the decommissioning and resale processes internally.

Either way, it’s essential that appropriate procedures be followed to properly decommission equipment – test, wipe, reformat, and when necessary, destroy drives to ensure the highest level of security and keep customer data safe.

Enterprises interested in upgrading their decommissioning security and environmental measures should look to the following resources:

• U.S Environmental Protection Agencies Waste Wise Program

• European Union’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive

• Standards and guidelines issued by the National Association of Information Destruction, Base Action Network e-Stewards Program 

Bypassing an in-depth study of current best practices, a short checklist for responsible decommissioning should include: 

• Tracking of all decommissioned hardware at every stage

• Fully quarantined storage with limited, monitored access

• Department of Defense processes for data wiping

• Separate drive reviews by multiple certified technicians to ensure full data destruction 

• Shredding of any non-functional disks by a certified provider

• Secure transport of remnants for recycling into raw materials or renewable energy, per government standards

• Documentation of all data destruction and Responsible Recycle certifications

• Third-party auditing to ensure all critical processes are followed 

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