This story I am telling you ,may or may not be true. However, the names have been changed to protect the innocent just in case.
Harry was in a difficult place.
Good news is, he just landed an awesome job in the I.T. department at the best health insurance agency in town. The office even had a window. On the other hand, the bad news; the office was full of old computers, wires, UPS’s (backup batteries), a giant copiers and other e-waste in boxes that hid, who-knows-what.
His first challenge is to get that room cleared out, the right way.
Knowing every computer is likely full of patient’s names, phone numbers, addresses and probably social security numbers; his first chore would not be the proverbial ‘walk in the park’.
What does Harry do? He asked Jason, the guy in the next office, what was usually done with e-waste. Jason started laughing. What bothered him is Jason’s laugh seemed genuine and almost diabolical.
“Nothing.” was the answer. “That’s why that office is piled up. Why do you think we put you in that office. You can’t just throw electronics away. All data has to be destroyed. Just remember, policy says everything needs to be recycled. There is no budget for I.T. waste. Good luck!” He grinned and walked away.
“What have I gotten myself into.” Harry wondered.
“No matter what, this job was too good to let e-waste ruin it. Besides, I am very good at finding solutions.”
Harry pulled up some boxes and piled up against the front wall. Reaching for the company laptop, he went to his favorite search engine. He first, typed in, ‘electronic recycling’. A few sites were revealed. Urban E Recycling had the best feedback. Then, he typed, ‘data destruction‘. Urban E Recyclings showed up again. One last search; HIPAA Compliant. Again, Urban E Recycling was the only one that appeared that actually HIPAA compliant and did electronic recycling in the area.
Both relief and excitement swelled up in Harry. ‘There is no charge‘. He read it again.’ No charge for data destruction? No charge for pick up? No charge for certificate of data destruction? No charge for inventory? ‘Harry kept reading. He didn’t understand why these services were free.
“There must be a catch.”
Finally, after reading, “Tell Me How This Works”, Harry understood that all of the electronics were smelted down to the precious and semi-precious metals. Evidently, that’s why there is no cost.
“Now I get it! Now I know why they don’t charge for hard drive destruction”
They even make it convenient to schedule a free pick up.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO SHRED HARD DRIVES?
“Perfect!” Harry exclaimed. “Now, what’s it going to cost?”
- 42% of erased hard drives leaves bits of data on hard drives.
- Shredding is the required standard by NSA and The Department of Defense.
- Information is non-recoverable after hard drive shredding.
