As E-waste Piles Grow, So Does the Risk of Identity Theft Do you have a scary closet at home or work that contains a bunch of stuff that you don’t know what to do with? Whether there are a few old cell phones, an old computer or an outdated PDA, we find ourselves with a growing pile of electronics in need of disposal. Now, think about all of the electronics that you have at work. Everyone seems to have a work computer these days. I’ve seen these “scary closets” all over Vermont. They range in size from a coat closet to a whole basement to pallets of material in a warehouse. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 75% of electronic waste, ready for end of life recycling, either goes out with the trash or sits in storage. In 2009, there were 438 million electronic devices sold. That year, 4.74 billion pounds of electronics was ready for end of life management. So, what do you do with dead computers and their confidential information? This is the question that we all face, today. Whether you’re deciding what to do with your old home computer, or you need to recycle 100 computers for your business, what should you do with them? First of all, don’t throw them in the trash. That’s illegal and puts hazardous waste into our environment. Secondly, consider if your electronics contain confidential information that needs to be securely disposed, if so, remove it. Ten years ago, would you have thrown your old tax return into the trash? Probably not, you would have recycled it, at a minimum because this option is better for the environment. Today, would you throw your old tax return into the recycling? Probably not, you would shred it because this option is more secure. We need to think of our electronics the same way. We’re at a turning point in the way E-waste is disposed. Responsibly recycling your material is an important step, but shouldn’t be your first step. For your protection from identity theft and your business’ compliance, you must first consider the secure disposal of any hard drives, and other electronic storage devices such as backup tapes, DVDs, thumb drives, etc. The recycling risks of these devices are real and extensive as computers can be handled by countless people and companies before they eventually get recycled. To give you a visual on the data that can be stored on a 500 gigabyte computer hard drive, imagine a storage room filled with approximately 10,000 records storage boxes full of paper. Could you imagine if a Vermont business threw all of these boxes into the trash or recycling stream? In fact, an MIT study showed that 146 of 158 used hard drives purchased on the internet for $1,000 were not properly sanitized and contained a bevy of confidential information such as credit card numbers, medical records and corporate financial records. We don’t know if any of those hard drives originated in Vermont. Today, the vast majority of identity theft occurs with electronic data versus paper. Confidential information is confidential information, regardless of it being on paper or on a hard drive, and it must be properly destroyed. In order to protect confidential personal and business information and prevent identity theft, the U.S. and Vermont governments have created and enacted laws to help prevent this from happening. These laws have one thing in common; they all require businesses to safeguard consumer confidential information, regardless of its form. In Vermont, the Vermont E-cycles Program was established in 2011. This program allows free drop-off of certain electronic waste devices for residents, 501c3 charities, school districts and small businesses of ten or fewer employees at convenient locations around the state (www.vtecycles.org). There are also several companies in Vermont that collect, process and/or store electronics for eventual end-of-life recycling out of state. SecurShred, Vermont’s first certified hard drive and other electronic storage media destruction company, provides services for businesses and individuals throughout the state. “The security of any personal data or information (such as social security number, tax or banking, business records, or personal identification, etc.) is the sole responsibility of the owner of the electronic device being dropped at a Collection Location for recycling. Don’t simply delete files or reformat your hard drive. This does not destroy all the data.” – Vermont E-cycles The good news is that electronics recycling is becoming easier and safer for the environment every day. However, the risk of identity theft is now more digital than ever. So before you recycle or donate your old electronics, think about your data on that device because that’s exactly what the identity thieves are thinking about. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ David Van Mullen Certified Secure Destruction Specialist SecurShred | Ship-n-Destroy Email: david@securshred.com
Posted by admin @ 7:04 pm
Categories: Electronics Recycling
Tags: computer recycling, electronic waste, recycle electronics, risk of identity theft
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Think about your hard drive before recycling your electronics Know where your desktop or laptop computer is being recycled. Every couple of years researchers try and see just how much personal information they can find on hard drives sold through the open, second hand market. Hard drives are obtained on the open, second hand market, usually from a range of resellers, but always include some obtained through eBay. The researchers examine the hard drives for personal or confidential information and report that about one-third of the hard drives contain personal information. There have been at least 5 of these studies in the last 6 years; always turning up some personal information. Do other electronics besides computers contain hard drives? YES! Surprisingly not many people realize just how manyelectronics created these days have a hard drive in them. As shown on 60 minutes, some electronics such as printers, copiers and facsimile machines do in fact contain a hard drive. This may not see like a big deal, after all what could those electronics hold in terms of information. They keep a copy of the documents sent to them and store that information on the hard drive. These hard drives hold only a certain amount of information and do eventually overwrite bits and pieces of information but always contain the most recent information just processed through them. Simply recycling these electronics and keeping them out of landfills is not enough these days. There have been numerous privacy breaches over the years which have lead to state and federal governments becoming involved and creating several acts and rules to safe guard consumers as well as the businesses that house this sensitive information. The most recognized acts and rules are the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Sarbanes Oxley Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), and Red Flag Rules. Information disposal is already one of the largest concerns to the consumers and businesses, and avoiding the consequences of improper disposal is of major importance when selecting vendors to process and destroy equipment containing such sensitive information. Ship-n-Destroy’s secure plant is operated by SecurShred, an information destruction company that has been certified for hard drive, paper and media destruction for plant-based and mobile operation by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID). SecurShred has been in business since 2000 and is an A-rated member of the Better Business Bureau. For more information about NAID
Posted by admin @ 6:22 pm
When buying or selling electronic equipment such as desktop or laptop computers make sure to remove, replace and destroy the hard drive. Simply reformatting the hard drive is not enough. This process does not completely wipe your sensitive information from the hard disk, but only cleans some of the information off of it. The reason for this is called “Hard Drive Defect”. This is an area of the hard drive that the reformat simply cannot overwrite. There are other forms of hard drive destruction or erasure such as drilling, overwriting, or degaussing, however, any forensic investigator can still extract information that was on the disk. The only sure method of destruction is by crushing your hard drive using an HD Hammer, which destroys the hard drive platter. This method assures that your information is permanently irretrievable. Make sure that you are using a company that is NAID certified to destroy hard drives. NAID certification assures you that the company destroying your hard drive has gone through stringent policies and procedures to insure your hard drive is properly destroyed and recycled. Examples of strict NAID standards are using bonded employees, that the facility is secure and monitored 24/7, the materials destroyed and recycled are done so by using “cradle to grave” recyclers located in the U.S. that keep your sensitive information from being recycled in foreign countries.
Categories: Electronics Recycling
Tags: CD Destruction, clean hard drive, computers, destruction, environment, erase hard drive, FACTA, format hard drive, hard drives, HIPAA, How to Wipe a hard drive, How to wipe hard drive, landfills, NAID Certified, privacy, protection, recycle electronics, recycling, remove hard drive, SecurShred, toxic, waste, Wipe a hard drive
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