3 Reasons it Pays to Carry Out Secure Hard Drive Destruction

Hard drives hold your business’s most valuable information, including proprietary data, financial statements and employee records. While the use of hard drives are widely prevalent and often necessary, the value of this information can create a problematic scenario when it comes time to upgrade your company’s hardware and increase technological efficiency.

Unfortunately, you can’t simply throw a hard drive in the trash at the end of its useful life and hope the information it contains will remain safe.

Working with a certified data destruction service to destroy your hard drives is the only way to truly ensure the safety of your company’s critical information.

Here are the top three reasons it pays to carry out secure hard drive destruction.

1. Avoids Non-Compliance

When it comes to document storage services and shredding services, you don’t risk compliance, so why would handling your hard drives be any different? Failure to comply with state or federal information security laws like HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley can put your business at risk of legal violations and fines.

Failing to properly destroy your hard drive can also expose your sensitive data to criminals and damage your company’s reputation. Even data on damaged and partially erased hard drives can be retrieved, so be certain of the complete destruction of your data with an experienced and trusted service.

Working with a professional data destruction company can ensure proper compliance. Make sure any potential partner is certified through the National Association of Information Destruction (NAID).

2. Relieves Employee Burden

It may be tempting to have your IT department or another employee dispose of hard drives and data internally, but this process can put undue stress and responsibility on your team. It can require dedicated time for even the most technologically savvy individuals to learn how to properly destroy electronic media, and relying on non-professionals increases the likelihood of something going wrong.

Hiring a professional to destroy your data ensures the job is done right and the hardware is recycled properly. A professional service should provide trained and screened staff members, thorough documentation, and a certificate of destruction.

3. Increases Business Efficiency

Beyond added security benefits, proper hard drive destruction also increases business efficiencies by freeing up both electronic and physical space. Rather than maintaining hard drives full of outdated information, proper hard drive destruction speeds up processes and systems.  

Removing old data can also save money and maximize profitability. Storing old data and hardware in the office “computer graveyard” reduces the amount of space that could otherwise be used for revenue-generating business activities.

At Gilmore Services, our team understands the importance of protecting your business through complete, secure data destruction. Our hard drive shredding services are AAA certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), which keeps us compliant with data protection laws such as FACTA, HIPAA, and Sarbanes Oxley. And, our equipment meets all regulatory standards for Department of Defense. Each of these certifications and our ongoing experience is in place to help businesses like yours remain compliant and efficient.

Learn more about which data destruction services are right for your business.