Best Practices for IT Asset Disposition and Secure Device Disposal

It’s no secret that all your business IT hardware will become outdated and need to be replaced every few years. So, when that time comes, it’s crucial for you to remember that your devices likely all contain sensitive data. Simply throwing away or donating these devices without taking proper protocols is both a major compliance and cybersecurity disaster waiting to happen. The process of ridding your business of outdated devices is called IT Asset Disposition (ITAD), and it is the most secure and ethical way for you to retire your hardware.  

First, it helps to begin with a formal policy in place before you get to the point of needing to get rid of your business devices. It can be incredibly simple, but it needs to be clear on the process of retirement; specifically, which employees purchase, use, and/or approve each device, as well as instructions for data destruction and final reports on all steps. This sets you up for a structured and secure routine in seeing your devices to their end of life and keeping your business data secure.  

A strong ITAD process should also be part of your employee offboarding process. It is critical for management to recover every piece of issued equipment from an outgoing employee to ensure that company data never leaves your organization. Once all the devices have been collected, it should be systematically wiped using good data sanitization methods before the device is either retired or re-issued to someone else. For any pieces that are outdated, those should begin the ITAD process for proper disposal. Keeping records of all steps involved in this process is critical. 

It’s also important to prioritize data cleansing over the physical destruction of a device. Most people think that destroying hardware is the safest and easiest means of destroying data. The reality is that this is usually unnecessary for most small businesses. The safest route is data sanitization that specializes in overwriting stored data drives with random data, effectively making all original data beyond recovery. This allows both protection of data and the opportunity for devices and parts to be refurbished and reused safely.  

At Tech Eagles, we strive day in and day out to make sure that your small business IT is secured so that you can focus your time into what you do best as a business. Call us today to inquire more about a partnership in building a stronger fortress for your business!