Discarded Data - A Threat to your security
A study sponsored by BT and Sims Lifecycle has revealed that 34% of discarded hard drives still contain confidential data. The nature of the data might even have threatened national security in the wrong hands. For example:
- a disk bought on eBay revealed details of test launch procedures for the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) ground to air missile defence system.
- two disks from the UK appear to have originated from Lanarkshire NHS Trust containing information from the Monklands and Hairmyres hospitals including: patient medical records, images of x-rays, medical-staff shifts and sensitive and confidential staff letters.
E-Waste Blitz in Victoria
Environment Victoria and the Total Environment Centre have launched a campaign calling on Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, to introduce a national electronic waste recycling scheme to stop toxic TVs, computers and mobile phones being dumped into landfill.
Fraser Brindley from Environment Victoria says e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream in Australia and it's only going to get worse.
"E-waste is toxic and should not be thrown into landfill. Old TVs and computer monitors each contain more than a kilogram of lead which is poisonous and can leak from rubbish tips into our environment. With approximately 168 million pieces of e-waste already in landfill, this is already a huge problem," he says.
Source: Management Today (Aug 2009), Australian Institute of Management
How do you combat these issues?
To begin with it is imperative that business become more responsible for managing waste. In the case of Discarded Data businesses should enforce a policy to remove all sensitive data so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. When it comes to e-waste there are a number of organisations that are willing to accept older PCs, Monitors and other e-waste. Some even refurbish to make them available for the 3rd world countries.
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