Remove Data Before Disposing Of Drives

While recent events such as the Ameriprise Financial data breach, the Hotels.com data breach, or VA laptop loss bring the issue of encrypting portable data into the spotlight, there is another serious data protection issue as well. Companies and individuals upgrade and replace computer equipment on a regular basis. When old hard drives are disposed of (or old computers with old hard drives in them, or old MP3 players that contain data, or old USB drives...anything that stores data- you get the idea), many people forget to securely remove the data first. Simply deleting is not good enough. Users can un-delete. Simply formatting is not good enough- it is possible to un-format. Follow the advice in Prepare Your Hard Drive For Disposal for tips and tools to help you erase all data from your drives permanently and securely before you sell, donate or dispose of them.