The Most Overlooked Part of Your Data Security.

Organizations constantly replace outdated computers, servers, laptops, copiers, and countless other types of electronic devices to keep up with technology and enhance worker productivity. This rush to upgrade, however, creates a challenge: large numbers of excess electronics must be managed and disposed of properly.

During a recent IT asset disposal project for a large New York bank, a chain-of-custody audit revealed three computers were untracked. An IT director was suspected of taking them.

Soft Underbelly of Data Security
Without question, most large organizations take data security seriously. Corporations will spend an estimated $68 billion worldwide this year on IT security measures including firewalls, network
monitoring, encryption, and end-point protection. When an organization spends millions guarding against hackers, it is tempting to feel confident.

But the most overlooked aspect of corporate data security may be simple IT asset disposition — in part, ironically, because so many businesses now rely on expert assistance. The fact that certified electronics recyclers are transporting retired IT assets to vendor facilities to be processed and sanitized can create a false sense of security that blinds executives to the biggest threats.

First, there is still the possibility that assets can be lost or stolen in-transit. (Increasingly, companies are learning to destroy data in-house, prior to disposal; that way, any loss or theft, while unfortunate, won't result in the financial disaster that would come from an actual data breach.) Second, there is the threat of trusted insiders can take retired assets any time before the handoff to the outsourcer, and before data is destroyed.

Detailed tracking data, however, reveals a troubling fact: four out of five corporate IT asset disposal projects had at least one missing asset. More disturbing is the fact that 15 percent of these "untracked" assets are devices potentially bearing data such as laptops, computers, and servers.

Posted in: Tech News