Whether an individual or part of an organization, we use hard drives to store sensitive information not just about ourselves but also of our customers. At some point, we have to get rid of these hard drives, one way or another, but simply pressing the “reformat” button on our computers to erase its content does not cut it.

Data destruction is one of the most important responsibilities of an organization dealing with records and other sensitive customer information. If hard drives are not disposed of securely, the consequences can be devastating. Aside from reformatting your hard drive (the most common yet the riskiest), there are several other ways you can destroy data. Some examples are software deletion, degaussing, and physical data destruction.

Importance of Data Destruction

You’ve witnessed how lives are inconvenienced when unscrupulous people use their data. Consequences may include lost or stolen intellectual property, compliance violations, monetary penalties, and/or criminal charges. Companies may also suffer irreparable damage to their reputation. Thus, you must place great importance on this aspect of protection when forming a secure records management plan.

Software Deletion or Overwriting

Software deletion or overwriting can be an effective way to erase existing data on the disk. It’s also easy to use (you can get the job done with a few clicks), cheap, and can be applied to a number of computers and laptops at the office, depending on the license you buy.

However, there’s really no data “deleted” using this method. The software simply overwrites a new layer of data, leaving the previous data layer intact. Since most software can’t physically remove the data from hard drives no matter how many times it is used to overwrite the data, this becomes a problem, especially for companies and government departments that require a complete erasure solution for sensitive data.

Degaussing

This method uses a high-powered magnet to affect the magnetic field of things like hard disks, magnetic tape, or floppy disks. This is done using a degausser, a device specifically designed to carry out this method.

Using only a limited amount of time and labor resources to make data unrecoverable completely makes this method ideal for dealing with highly sensitive data. However, this is impractical for companies or individuals who do not want to dispose of hundreds of hard drives. Degausser products can be expensive and heavy, and their electromagnetic fields can be strong enough that they can produce collateral damage to vulnerable equipment nearby.

Physical Destruction

While physically destroying hard drives may sound like the most satisfying and relatable among this list, there’s more to it than simply using a sledgehammer to smash your hard drive.

Physical destruction should be carried out by high-powered equipment only. The good news is that there are professionals who use the latest technology to wipe the hard drive’s existing data before physically destroying the disk. This ensures a more thorough approach to data destruction.

As you might have figured out, smashed pieces of a hard drive provide the highest assurance of data being truly disposed of. There is very little chance that someone will be able to reconstruct or even recover whatever’s inside.

Xpresshed.com is a team that specializes in data destruction. With a team of experts willing to help you out, data destruction has never been convenient and hassle-free. To know more about the full suite of data destruction services Xpresshed offers, please feel free to visit their website here. 

Your business should always protect any information that is connected to a living, identifiable individual that it handles. No matter what type of data you store — financial data, payment details, or employee contact information — protecting your client’s data should be one of your highest priorities.

It’s all about trust

Data breaches have shown us that the fallout on organizations can be far greater than just legal consequences. Consumers generally expect that companies will safeguard their private information, so any loss of trust can have serious consequences.

Day by day, companies are storing a large amount of data. As information expands, there are also continuous upgrades concerning data storage. Some of these are memory sticks, hard drives, and cloud hosting. 

The society also has penalties for non-compliance with strict data protection regulations based on laws, such as the EU GDPR and New York Cybersecurity. Thus, organizations now have a solid mandate to keep the data they are gathering secure from unauthorized access.

Data security is important

The goal of data security is to keep your data safe. With more reliance on computers, there are more potential threats to your stored data. Data may be lost due to hardware failure, computer virus, or deleted by an unauthorized user. Aside from unauthorized access to digital information, careless disposal of documents may also result in your customer’s information falling into the wrong hands.

What can you do?

You have to acknowledge that keeping your client’s data is a challenge and one that you may need professional help with.

Your business must be prepared to invest in data security at the highest levels. Such investments should be holistic and ongoing. Not only do you need to use the best protection, but you must also receive the best advice and training. Remember that it only takes one mistake to take down a whole network, so it makes sense to educate your team.

How can XpresShredShre help you?

We are a document and hard drive shredding company. In a time when maintaining data security is critical, we offer our expertise to help you protect your client’s valuable information from being accessed by hackers and other unscrupulous individuals.

We specialize in data security, paper shredding, and hard drive destruction. We also offer consultation services to help you improve your current data storage practices and utilize the latest technology to guard your customer’s information.

Our company also aims to achieve its sustainability goals and leave the least impact on the environment. We recycle all materials while ensuring that your security is our primary focus.

Data security is a serious challenge nowadays, but you don’t have to go through it alone. Allow us to help you. To know more about the services we offer, please check out our website here.

If you manage to shred every piece of paper in your office, guess what? All that information you just destroyed is easily still vulnerable to criminals, hackers and other unsavory characters. No shredding task is done until information stored electronically on hard drives is also wiped out for good.

In our modern day, most people understand that paper has become secondary to computer-stored information. Yet, there tends to be a kind “disconnect” when it comes to computer hardware.

A typical hard drive holds hundreds of thousands, if not millions of files. Most businesses have scads of files they have long since forgotten about. However, these files still exist and every file represents a potential security breach.

A business owner in the Denver area who needs to tackle information destruction might search for “Paper Shredder Denver” and find a ton of providers. That is just the starting point. You still have to choose a method of destruction that gets the job done for your business while not destroying your budget.

Consider these key options:

1. You can purchase software designed to “wipe” your hard drive. However, such software is highly variable. It may not be a total solution.
2. A hard drive can also be degaussed using magnetic fields or electromechanical pulses. But even this is not always a one-size-fits-all solution.
3. Another option is to mechanically “punch through” hard drive chassis and platter. The equipment is inoperable, but the information remains on the hard drive.
4. A more thorough option is to literally shred the hard drive into pieces. Though that may sound fun, trusting a professional is a much better option.
5. The “nuclear option” literally disintegrates your hard drive using specialized equipment. This option reduces the hardware to tiny bits. This is a “for sure” option, although tends to be more costly and time-consuming.

Once you have searched online for “Paper shredder Denver,” ask your list of providers which options they have available and make sure they have one that is right for you. If you are also looking to save time, contact XpresShred. They have all of these options and can help you choose the best for your business.

If you’re like most company owners, you have tons of paperwork that sits in files, folders, and filing cabinets. While much of your information might be on the computer now, you’ve still got a variety of sensitive information on paper that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Commercial shredding in Denver is an excellent opportunity to get rid of all those unneeded documents. There are a variety of ways to go about it, such as dropping it off at the shredding facility or using the company’s mobile service.

XpresShred offers a variety of services to help you keep your information (and that of your customers) safe and obscured. It provides certified mobile shredding services, which means you are guaranteed that the person arriving at your location works for the company. You don’t have to do anything but gather the documents together and the professional assigned to your location will take them all out to the van or truck and shred them while sitting in the parking lot. The company also offers residential shredding services; you don’t have to be a company owner to utilize the services. This allows anyone to shred sensitive information to keep it private and protected.

While many shredding companies provide these services, some go above and beyond by providing additional ways to handle your sensitive material which can include more than paper. With hard drive destruction, you can ensure that no sensitive information lurks on your hard drive. No one can get customer account numbers, credit card numbers, and company information. Most people believe that wiping the hard drive clean (reformatting it) is the best thing to do. While it does help, some information can get embedded in parts that you can’t access. Through XpresShred, actual metal is shredded and then recycled so that it doesn’t put added strain on the environment, and you can get rid of a laptop or computer hard drive you no longer need.

Shredding your confidential documents with saves your identity from getting into criminal hands, but did you know how much it saves in our natural resources?

At XpresShred, we shred and bale in excess of 100 tons of paper each month. All of our shredded paper is shipped directly to pulping mills which recycle the paper into tissue paper products such as facial tissue and paper towels. For each ton of paper that we recycle, 7000 gallons of water is saved . In addition, between 17 to 31 trees are also saved.

One way to share these savings is to offer a green event to your customers as a thank you for their business. Shred Events can be arranged through XpresShred during the week or weekends starting at a minimum of two hours for a dedicated shred truck and Security Technician. Shred Events are very popular and repeat events are often booked one year in advance.

If you are reading this blog, then you most likely understand the importance of shredding your paper documents to protect your identity and privacy. The repercussions of your personal information or the information of others in your control, falling into the wrong hands is timely and costly.

Oddly enough, there is typically a “disconnect” in most people’s minds when it comes to destroying hard drives and other electronic equipment. We know this, because XpresShred is in the business of destroying information. And the amount of paper documents that we destroy, far outweighs the number of hard drives, tapes, disks, etc.

If you are diligent about destroying your documents, you should be even more diligent about destroying the information on your electronics. The typical hard drive can hold hundreds of thousands of files. Imagine the consequences of your information being accessed by criminals.

XpresShred has specialized equipment for the physical destruction of hard drives and other magnetic media. They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so we’ve attached a picture of what shredded hard drives look like after going through our equipment. We stage the shredded hard drives in large 2,000 lb. capacity containers and ship them to metal refiners. Like our shredded paper, it is 100% recycled.

Unfortunately, unlike the recycling of shredded paper and hard drives, the magnetic media is landfilled.

There are currently five different processes in the marketplace for the destruction of information on hard drive. Knowledge is the key to choosing a method of destruction that meets your goals and budget. The five basics are:

1. You can purchase software to “wipe” your data. The software replaces your data with meaningless characters. Many variables affect the outcome of this process with the biggest obstacles being the varied effectiveness of the multitude of software as it relates to the variables in your hard drives.
2. Your hard drives can be degaussed which means using magnetic fields or electromechanical pulses to erase the data stored on your hard drive disks. Similar to disk wiping, the applied magnetic fields need to be strong enough to overcome the variables in your hard drives. What may work for one, may not work for another.
3. Punching through the hard drive chassis and platter with specialized equipment. The information is still retained on the platter, but the device has been rendered inoperable.
4. You can hire a NAID Certified third party to shred your hard drives on specialized equipment. Hard drive shredders literally shred your hard drives into many smaller pieces. And on commercial projects, the volume of shred alone makes this a very secure solution.
5. Lastly, your hard drives can be disintegrated on specialized equipment. This method is like shredding on steroids. The particle sizes are much smaller but is typically very costly and time consuming.

Another option that is routinely applied is to combine a combination of the different methods described above. Some government agencies require degaussing first and shredding or incineration second.

At XpresShred, we apply stringent operational policies and procedures in the safe and secure handling and destruction of hard drive and other magnetic media. Our NAID certified method of destruction is physical destruction through shredding on specialized equipment. Unless a customer “opts out”, XpresShred will record the serial numbers on shredded hard drives, physically destroy the hard drives and recycle 100% of the hard drive shred. We use a closed loop chain of custody which means that your material is always secured from the moment that we begin handling it, until it is melted at the refiner.