Data destruction before reselling IT equipment

We often hear the phrase throwaway society and associate it with general waste but with the speed of technological advances we are throwing away more IT equipment than ever before. Consider the first computer you purchased, the age, size and functionality of it and try not to laugh. Now compare this back to your current laptop, pc, mobile phone etc. How many upgrades have you had since your first computer? What did you do with your old equipment; did you perform any data destruction?

Since we are upgrading our equipment more often the sale of our old equipment brings a welcome additional income. If you use the online auction site eBay as an example you will see many second hand pc's and laptops for sale by the previous owner but how many of these machines are a potential identity theft case and how many have thought to destroy the data on the drives?

Simply formatting a drive or deleting files will not remove the information from the drive. It merely allows the drive to have more space to write to. You can easily recover personal and financial data that almost all hard drives will contain. It is not just technology that has advanced, so have the techniques used by criminals in order to obtain such information.

The need to destroy data before reselling hard drives is a must for businesses as well as individuals. Looking to recoup money back on equipment quickly, many companies overlook the data held on the hard drives. There have been many high profile incidences of this for corporate, military and even government establishments where data has been lost, stolen or given away. This has had a massive cost associated to it, not even considering the cost of bad publicity.

When reselling your old equipment, regardless of a business or individual it is imperative to ensure your data is destroyed. If you have no experience in this field employ the services of a professional data destruction company. They will ensure your drive is wiped or destroyed ensuring your data is lost forever beyond recovery. This way your financial and personal information stays safe.