What Is The Importance of Data Destruction in Cybersecurity?
This article discusses the importance of data destruction from a cybersecurity perspective to safeguard the private information of clients, investors, employees, and customers. Data destruction and cybersecurity can no longer be viewed independently by organisations. Without creating a solid data destruction policy for devices and data at rest, protecting active data from threat actors is just insufficient.
As some people might believe, data protection is not the only concern with cybersecurity. Additionally, it concerns data destruction, which is an essential component of every organization’s cybersecurity policy and procedure. In this article, we will discuss about data destruction and why it’s crucial for cybersecurity.
What is Data Destruction?
The act of erasing stored data is referred to as data destruction. When papers are no longer needed, the classic data destruction examples include shredding or incinerating them. Data destruction techniques, however, have seen a significant change in the digital age.
Information saved on tapes, hard drives, and other types of electronic media is now totally destroyed in order to render it unreadable and inaccessible for unlawful uses.
Data destruction has indeed been a hot topic, particularly as a result of incidents of data theft brought on by the inappropriate disposal of IT assets. Globally, there have been numerous reports of events when consumer data and records were compromised from devices that were either at rest or in transit. A data breach caused by negligence at the HealthReach Community Health Center in Maine, USA, resulted in the compromise of more than 100,000 patients’ financial and medical information in one such incident.
Why is Data Destruction Important?
Electronic equipment are necessary for operating any business. The information produced by the business should be safely guarded. The data must also be safely erased when its useful life is up. If you’re unsure about the significance of data destruction, think about the possibility of a rival obtaining access to your secure information. Even though the disclosure of trade secrets can be disastrous for any company, hackers, corporate spies, and fraudsters are always threatening your data.
Many businesses have sensitive information that they don’t want the public to know about. Additionally, organisations are legally compelled to make sure data disposal is done properly. To safeguard themselves and their clients, everyone in the profession should follow to certain criteria.
Although it can seem like destroying data is a simple process, several companies, organisations, and people who work with sensitive data are not aware of the proper procedures for doing so. According to studies, personal information is still present on 10% of all used hard drives sold online. However, not only people neglect to carefully delete their data. Because it sold technological items online that are still in use, Britain’s National Health Service Trust was fined nearly $500,000 in 2012. Because it offered electronic products for sale online that might still access medical details.
Know More Importance of Data Destruction
Businesses’ online systems may be threatened by the use of large amounts of data they hold. Employees’ private information can be utilised to copy authorised persons online. Your company’s cybersecurity may be compromised using knowledge of the online security protocols. Even worse, someone could steal the identities of customers and workers using the personal information they provided, endangering their financial security.
Data destruction is the best approach for business owners to stop their data from getting into the wrong hands. When you want to decommission your equipment, data destruction is increasingly crucial, especially if you plan to sell or recycle the equipment.
What are the Common Methods of Data Destruction?
There are many different methods for destroying data. Based on things like the type of storage medium, internal policy directives, audit and compliance requirements, logistical and financial limits, technical know-how, etc., a business needs to select a technique that will work for them. We will talk about three common data deletion methods:
- Logical Destruction aka overwriting
- Degaussing
- Physical Destruction
#Logical Destruction Aka Overwriting
The method of replacing old data with fresh random data is known as logical destruction. It uses a series of 0s and 1s that replace existing data on the storage media. Data in a storage device that has been overwritten is fully lost, making recovery impossible. Organizations favor this approach because it maintains the storage device reusable and lowers e-waste. Global erasure standards like DoD, NIST, and others are typically used for overwriting.
#Degaussing
The process of physically destroying a technology or document by mechanically reducing it to ashes or flames is referred to as physical destruction, as the name suggests. To make sure that the business complies with international data destruction standards, physical destruction tasks are typically managed by qualified third-party suppliers. However, when devices are physically destroyed, it is no longer possible to recover data from their component parts.
Use Best Data Destruction Software in 2023
A strong data deletion policy can improve cybersecurity. Following 24 international erasure standards, trustworthy software like CubexSoft Data Wipe Tool is useful for performing permanent data deletion. Using advanced algorithms, it overwrites the data in one or more passes. Additionally, it provides reports and certifications that can be used for audits as written evidence of erasure. Top IT asset disposition businesses choose CubexSoft Data Wiping Software to permanently wipe data.
Businesses can accomplish data protection and disposal simultaneously by taking into account a top-notch data destruction technique. Otherwise, even a novice hacker can easily gain access to sensitive information like daily financial transactions, customer information, and so forth by simply studying the pattern of hard disk disposal without the proper data wiping in it.
Learn several methods of data destruction from this article to take the proper steps to minimise cybersecurity threats. To prevent cyber theft, it is ideal to help with a well-thought-out data destruction strategy.
