4 Reasons to Include E-Waste in Your Company’s Cybersecurity Plan

E-waste thrown into a garbage instead of recycled.

Most companies update their office devices every four to five years. With the rapidly changing technology landscape, these updates are unavoidable and necessary but cause e-waste security concerns. If you do not currently consider e-waste into your cybersecurity plans, here are 4 reasons why you should:

  1. Old Office Equipment Contains Confidential Information

Items such as company phones, tablets, flash drives, old computers, copiers, and fax machines often contain confidential information that could put your business at risk. With cybersecurity on the rise, it is more important than ever to be diligent when replacing old equipment. Having a proper e-waste protocol in place can help to decrease the risk to costly security breaches.

  1. Wiping Files Doesn’t Always Do the Trick

Data can be stored in places that make simply “wiping the files” untrustworthy. In a recent study of 200 hard disk drives, 11% of wiped drives still contained confidential information. This fact isn’t just for hard drives. Think of all those company phones and tablets that your company trades in or throws away each year. If the right person were to get ahold of these devices your business could be in serious trouble. Secure E-cycling and destruction is the only way to ensure confidential data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

  1. Employee Education is Crucial

You may know the risks e-waste can pose for your business, but do your employees? Having an e-waste protocol in place at your business ensures that everyone is aware of the potential risks. The last thing you want is your office manager throwing out a hard-drive that contains your client’s personal information. Your e-waste plan should include training for all current and new staff members, and ideally, include a way to document the secure disposal of all old electronic equipment.

  1. Security Breaches Are Costly Mistakes

Can you really afford not to protect your business from security breaches? Probably not. Think a data breach won’t happen to you? Think again. In 2016 U.S. companies and government agencies suffered a staggering 1,093 data breaches. The average total cost for companies who suffered a data breach of more than 50,000 records cost an average of $10.3 million. For small businesses who suffered a breach, the average cost was 4.3 million. Data breaches are far more costly than implementing secure e-waste disposal methods throughout your company.

Protect Your Business with Secure E-Scrapping

ConfiData offers businesses secure e-scrapping services to keep your business safe from costly data breaches. Your old equipment is picked up and brought back to one of our secure facilities for destruction and recycling. Upon completion, you receive a certificate of destruction for your records. ConfiData will work with your company to help ensure the proper e-waste protocols are in place. Give us a call today at 1-800-62-SHRED to get started.