Buy a degausser and / or a media shredder? Or maybe spend money on other purposes? Does my company really need this type of device or is it an unnecessary fad?

Important data on storage media

Devices for destroying data from electronic media can be successfully used in both small and medium-sized and large enterprises. Certainly, they must be used wherever confidential and secret data is stored, requiring high protection, and its leakage can cause serious problems to the enterprise. On media, such as disks, backup tapes and even printers, information is stored about the company’s development strategy, marketing and financial plans. They often contain confidential agreements, customer or contractor data. All such information is protected, and if it becomes outdated – destroyed. It should be remembered that legal regulations regarding data protection clearly emphasize the need to remove information from carriers in a strictly defined manner.

Purchase, rent a degausser or maybe a data destruction service?

Unnecessary data stored on electronic media must be removed safely and effectively. Therefore, buying a device for destroying information is a necessary expense. Of course, you can use the services of a specialized company, but the purchase of this type of machine is a one-time expense. The device for data destruction can be used for many years, usually does not take up much space and is always at hand. Another option, this time low budget, is also the loan of a degausser with a pre-paid function for removing information – in this case you incur the costs of destroying data from a specific number of magnetic media.

Don’t risk!

To sum up, the costs of secure storage and subsequent deletion of data should be, like other expenses related to the proper functioning of the enterprise (e.g. for electricity, insurance, payments to employees, etc.), written in the annual budget of each company. Focus on developing your business without risking information leakage that is important to your business. The consequences can be extremely serious. Remember that financial sanctions, which threaten in case of uncontrolled data loss, many times exceed the cost of buying a professional device. This is demonstrated by a huge financial penalty imposed by the Office for Personal Data Protection on one of the Polish online stores. The situation was related to a data leakage that occurred in December 2018.