Why You Need an Experienced Hard Drive Shredding Company

Why You Need an Experienced Hard Drive Shredding Company

When it’s time to replace your old hard drives or other data-containing devices, you might put them on a storage shelf (intending to reformat them later), or toss those damaged drives and call it a day.

That can be a massive mistake.

Hard drives and other data containing devices are huge opportunities for cybercriminals. They open you up to data breaches and identity theft.  It’s much easier to extract information from old or damaged hard drives than you might think.

Properly destroying hard drives is a little more complex than just reformatting them. Most of the time, when you reformat a drive, the original data is still there; it’s just waiting to be overwritten when the hard drive is installed and put to a new use. But reformatting and then throwing the drive away would be a mistake.

Unless that drive is going to be installed and reused in a secure machine, hard drive shredding is the recommended end for data devices that contain:

• Personally identifiable information (PII).
• Medical records covered by HIPAA.
• Credit card and billing information.
• Proprietary information on processes and systems.
• Company accounting information.
• Company client information.

You’ll want to work with an experienced hard drive shredding company that has the knowledge and specialized tools necessary to properly destroy your hard drives and thwart any possibility of that old data being used to cause harm.

If you don’t, you put yourself (and your customers) at risk. And, depending on what industry you’re in, you might actually be setting yourself up for legal trouble.

Protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

One of the most important reasons to work with a professional hard drive shredding company is to protect your employees’ and customers’ personally identifiable information (PII).

In some industries (the medical industry, for example), privacy laws like HIPAA require you to properly destroy your customers’ and employees’ data when it’s no longer needed.

If you don’t, you can be fined or taken to court.

Protec Recycling is an NAID-AAA-certified hard drive shredding service, meaning we offer the highest level of protection for personal information when we shred your old or damaged hard drives, ensuring everything is properly destroyed.

Your employees and customers are kept safe, and you can rest easy.

One-Time or Ongoing Hard Drive Shredding Services

From one-time hard drive shredding to regularly scheduled service, Protec Recycling helps you regularly (and properly) shred hard drives. To schedule a pickup, call our office at 205-549-2120 or visit our Contact Us page today.