In today’s technology-driven world, organizations frequently upgrade their IT infrastructure, leading to the inevitable disposal of outdated or unused equipment. This process is known as IT Asset Disposition (ITAD). ITAD involves the secure and environmentally responsible disposal of IT assets, ensuring that sensitive data is destroyed and that materials are recycled or disposed of according to regulatory standards.

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With how much of our daily lives occurs online, data security has become a top priority for organizations and businesses alike. The sheer amount of sensitive information stored on electronic devices calls for strict measures to protect this data from unauthorized access and misuse. One essential aspect of data security is data destruction. But why is data destruction important?

Data Privacy Day is an event that reminds organizations and individuals alike that data protection is a crucial and ongoing effort. Data Privacy Day is celebrated on January 28 every year to honor the introduction of the first binding international treaty, Convention 108, that protected individuals against intrusive data collection and the processing of personal data.

While your first inclination might be to hire a professional or a company to destroy data, you first have to have your in-house process buttoned up.

You need to know your end goals, what your company stores locally vs what is stored on your hard drives. Provided you have a staff, you also need to know what’s on their phones, laptops, desktops or tablets. What about customer or patient data? Also, if you regularly print, those files existed somewhere before.

January 28th marks Data Privacy Day, an annual event held in order to promote both data privacy and best practices for protecting your critical data.
So this is an excellent time to get ahead of the risks that compromised data can present to a business.

While working from home can have its benefits and allow for a productive workday, there are also challenges that impact ITAD. For companies, it's important to pick an ITAD partner they can trust and can aid with services such as santizing devices, help you inventory excess or unnecessary devices, and help create a plan to dispose of them properly. It's an interesting time for everyone so having the right partner is key. 

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known now as HIPAA, has provided patients with the privacy they need but it’s also been a challenge and disruption to the way medical records are maintained and managed from an IT perspective. Patient authorizations are required for any data sharing and breaches of HIPAA can have big financial applications to healthcare providers and networks. In fact, millions upon millions of dollars have been paid out in HIPAA-related breach of privacy cases. This extends to your ITAD practices as well. It’s key to have the right partner to help you navigate.

Virtually every company has the need to eliminate and recycle electronic waste. And while shredding unnecessary old or archived files is usually the answer, it isn’t always the right answer. It can shred your budget too. While on the surface shredding may seem like the simpler, cheaper alternative to wiping data, that’s simply not always the case. The machines can be cost-prohibitive and ultimately, more costly than wiping software. 

You spend on devices. You spend on hardware and software updates and upgrades. But how are you protecting your investment? ITAD (Information Technology Asset Disposition) is an important and sometimes overlooked means of ensuring that you have the means to recycle, refurbish and dispose of your old technology securely while maintaining your data security. And here’s a little more about why it’s so critical.

As a business owner, you know one of your business assets is your data – your company’s financial data, your clients’ information, and other digital information. When it is time to dispose of your end-of-lifecycle electronic equipment, you must be concerned about the information stored on your devices. At Arrow, we are committed to the secure disposal of your e-waste and believe you should be informed about the importance of the Chain of Custody of your electronic data. 

Corporate Compliance regulations vary by industry, but they are crucial in developing your company’s risk management policy. One of the biggest risks of exposure for your company is through poor data destruction polices. Simply destroying IT assets or throwing them out with the trash is not an option, particularly if your organization deals with sensitive data. 

Technology has allowed many companies to work in the current COVID-19 climate while keeping their employees and families safe at home. Remote working is a flexible solution for many organizations because it allows employees to be online and in-network while they do not need to commute or expose themselves unnecessarily to others, however remote working does raise some questions about how a company’s IT Asset Disposition plan should work. 

Due to the hard work and advocacy by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), the Department of Homeland Security designated scrap yards such as Arrow Scrap as essential businesses on March 25, 2020.