Data is important, almost as much as oil. There is a growing movement around the world for companies to ensure that they collect data as per the regulations that are being brought into force by governments. The providers of said data (us) are becoming increasingly wary of the types of data being collected and are adamant on having more control over the data that they share. This apprehension is valid, too, as several incidents of data breaches occur every year—and they are only increasing in frequency, putting more and more classified and personal data at risk of being exposed. Even when sending old hardware for destruction, there is a possibility of a data breach as hard drives leave traces of data that can be recovered if the data is not professionally wiped off.
The Impact Of Data Breaches
When your data is breached, as an organization, the consequences can be far-reaching. You will have to pay fines and bear unforeseen costs to investigate the breach. You may be taken to court by the victims of the breach, and litigation is expensive and cumbersome. It can lead to damage to your reputation and an overall loss of trust. The potential damage can be in the millions (remember Equifax?) In short, it pays to be cautious about preventing data breaches.
How Do You Ensure Your Data Is Destroyed?
Data destruction remains a key challenge for organizations when overhauling their IT systems requires the replacement of old hardware. No matter how cleanly the drives are wiped, the data is still vulnerable if it comes into the hands of experienced nefarious individuals or groups, who could find confidential data and sell it or use it for extortion. A Fortune 100 company would have to actively ensure that something like this does not happen. So what can such a company, which has a national reach and operates in a data sensitive sector such as financial services, do when it has a huge volume of IT hardware that it needs to get rid of when that hardware previously stored the sensitive and identifiable data of potentially millions of clients?
Adonis Has The Answers
The smart choice, in this case, would be to employ the services of Adonis, which is exactly what the Fortune 100 company did. Adonis is an expert at e-waste recycling and data destruction, and we were able to handle the demand of this company at scale. The company needed to get rid of over forty one thousand devices along with the data stored in them.
Adonis has the ability to handle tasks of this size while ensuring a full, secure chain of custody, with accountability, as all the steps in the process are traceable, from when the hardware is scheduled to be picked up right up to the recycle or sale of the hardware. During the entire process, we did not misplace/lose a single piece of the company’s hardware. Adonis goes out of its way to ensure that the customer’s manifest matches the hardware sent over or collected—in fact, we have sent back pieces that did not match the manifest. We are committed to our customers’ peace of mind.
Adonis also accommodates specific instructions from its customers. The Fortune 100 company specifically asked us to make the hardware not traceable back to them. That involved removing all identifiable information inside and out. We erased all physical branding from the hardware and destroyed data following industry standards.
Adonis follows the NIST 800-88 standard for media sanitization. As a result, the customer gets a compliance certificate. We ensure that all information or sensitive data that can lead back to our customers or cause them any damage is entirely scrubbed and removed. This aspect of our process becomes essential if the hardware is to be refurbished and sold in secondary markets.
E-waste is increasingly generated every single day, and recycling it is a huge challenge due to the complexity of the materials involved and the sheer volume of the waste. Environmentally conscious behavior has to be the guiding force behind decisions on handling e-waste.
The three R’s—reduce, reuse, and recycle—are conceptually simple yet difficult to practice. Adonis believes that it has environmental obligations and tries to extend the life of IT hardware by reusing it. Adonis resold the hardware of the Fortune 100 company and was able to pay back over $1 million. In effect, the life of the discarded hardware was increased along with its utility, and instead of costing the company money, it earned them some!
All Adonis does is net the profit from the transaction. This is a perfect win-win-win situation for all the parties involved, and it is a positive step towards making the environment a little greener. The Fortune 100 company was also offered an R2 compliance certificate as proof of responsible recycling.
Making The E-waste Disposal Process Better
Adonis understands that the world needs to do better when it deals with e-waste. Technology has become so pervasive and interconnected that it is impossible not to keep innovating and developing newer, better products. Obsolescence is a problem the world doesn’t seem to worry about at the moment, and the cutting edge technology of yesteryear is no longer capable of handling current requirements. Companies have to invest in new technology sooner or later. This invariably generates e-waste, which is not easy to dispose of.
Companies also cannot afford to be victims of data breaches due to unprofessional and careless e-waste disposal. Adonis has invested heavily in state-of-the-art data destruction machines which have only one purpose: to ensure that no data can ever be retrieved once the drives are wiped. Adonis has also invested in giving its customers the ability to track the entire chain of custody and monitor every step of the process. The objective is to tackle the problem of e-waste in a manner as environmentally friendly as possible by enabling our customers to dispose of their e-waste knowing that their old machines will have no data in them once we have processed them, while also helping to recover costs instead of paying for disposal.
Adonis: Professional Data Destroyers And E-waste Warriors
If you are a company that understands its responsibility to the environment and needs to get rid of your old hardware in a way that is as effective and environmentally friendly as possible, Adonis is the perfect partner for you.
We provide cost-effective and NIST compliant data destruction as we believe that it is critical to avoid data breaches resulting from old hardware being discarded unprofessionally. We can handle all your needs, no matter the size of your company. We will securely destroy or recycle the hardware for you and pay you money as a result of hardware sales. We are fully compliant with responsible recycling standards as well. Reach out to Adonis to know how we can help you reduce your impact on the environment and assure peace of mind when doing so!