Having a written data media disposal policy is important, but without auditable records showing that you routinely follow your own policy, your policy is not legally defensible.
Prompt disposal of obsolete electronic records is one of the most important things an organization can do to reduce regulatory data privacy liabilities and the legal risk associated to electronic data discovery litigation issues and their potentially huge costs. A single modern hard drive can store trillions of bytes of recorded data, equivalent to the capacity of an entire paper records archive. The loss of a single hard drive can be catastrophic to an organization. While the majority of electronic data stored on obsolete electronic media is data that you are no longer legally required to retain, the task of cataloging and managing the chain of possession of this obsolete data media can be overwhelming.
Since the early 1990′s, Back Thru The Future has helped organizations solve this problem with our on site inventory validation services. This process encompasses the collection, physical inventory reconciliation with your asset management systems inventory, manifesting and securing the to be disposed of assets for transportation.
It begins at your facility with our onsite team, highly trained professionals, experienced in the use of the latest software and scanning tools, and having a thurough understanding of our customers’ requirements.
- We remove hard drives from “to-be-destroyed” computers and meticulously record exactly where each drive came from, bridging the gap between corporate inventory records and auditable data destruction records.
- The “to-be-sanitized” data media is cataloged by serial number and a preprinted bar code label is applied. The inventoried media is placed in manifested secure containers awaiting sanitization.
- The assets with all hard drives removed are sorted in to like catergories and securely packaged with apropriate manifests. The assets are now ready to be shipped for environmentally appropriate recycling or asset recovery.
The to be sanitized media can be sanitized on site by either degaussing or shredding or the the media can be securely transported under our tight chain of custody protocol to our Class D licensed electronic recycling facility.
Immediatly prior to sanitization:
The media placed in the secure containers at your facility is matched by the preprinted bar code labels with the media removed from the secure containers within our mobile shredding vehicle or at our NAID AAA certified secure shredding facility. The inventory recociliation must be 100% matched prior to the actual sanitization.
The Sanitization process is digitally recorded and a certificate of destruction and environmental compliance is issued.
- All records are digitized and uploaded to a secure web-based archive, allowing for 24/7/365 – easy retrieval of detailed records of each project
This results in an auditable chain of custody that proves exactly when, where and how each specific device was destroyed.
Back Thru the Future offers the strongest compliance documentation in the industry… and it’s just one part of our comprehensive Safe Harbor Express data destruction program. Find out more about our NIST compliant data sanitization service and our environmental disposal and sustainability.