40% of Personal Devices Resold on 3rd Party Sites Contain Personally Identifiable Information
You’re looking to get new laptops and smartphones for the sales team and decide to wipe the old equipment yourself and sell it on eBay. One word of warning? Don’t. A recent study by NAID came out indicating 40% of used smartphones, laptops and other equipment were not properly wiped, giving identifying information that could cost companies thousands in legal fees and fines.
NAID commissioned CPR Tools, Inc. to analyze the used devices, which included used hard drives, mobile phones and tablets. According to Robert Johnson, NAID CEO, while this study’s results show a decrease in data found compared to past studies, “NAID employed only basic measures to extract data; imagine if we had asked our forensics agency to actually dig!” He goes on to surmise that “40 percent is horrifying when you consider the millions of devices that are recycled annually.”
Use NAID Certified Facilities to Protect Your Data
Ultimately, companies are discovering it’s not cost-effective to wipe their own equipment and resell on 3rd party sites. The risk of being out of compliance with HIPAA or inadvertently giving out credit card information regarding your customers simply isn’t worth it. Look for a NAID-certified facility such as SecurShred that can not only scan and store your information off old devices, but destroy hard drives, smart devices and offer paper-shredding and storage in one stop.
Update Passwords Frequently
Use frequent password updates and programs such as LastPass to store passwords within your organization. Be certain to keep abreast of any vulnerabilities and update accordingly.
DON’T Toss, Donate or Resell Your Devices Unless…
You’re absolutely confident ALL information has been cleared. In the end, Ship ‘n Destroy once and for all may be much more cost-effective (and less of a headache…) than wiping down everyone’s devices and hoping you captured all pertinent information.
Formulate a Data- Device Protection Plan
Talk to SecurShred about steps you can take to put a plan in place to keep all your records, devices and storage NAID-certified safe and secure.