What's My Risk?

In the last 12 months...

• 130,495 patient records were lost in transit when shipped FedEx by a New York Health Center
• 8400 records were potentially exposed when a Credit Union lost track of a backup tape
• Over 2000 public school employees were put at risk when computers were surplussed with hard drives and data intact
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee lost over $7 million investigating the data loss of over 200,000 customer records...
• More...

According to a recent study by the Ponemon Institute, data breaches average $202 per customer record. And even if your company is deemed to have made a "reasonable effort in good faith" you will still be responsible for discovery costs in the millions. In addition to government fines, companies must handle potential legal action from each person whose records are exposed.

Are you at risk? Probably. Does your organization:

• Prohibit on site data wipes?
• Rely on quick "locking" software, which may not protect against a sophisticated scan?
• Ship assets off site to your disposal vendor?
• Allow truck drivers to handle unsecured assets?
• Send drives or machines back for lease return or service?
• Use vendors who shift responsibility to subcontractors?
• Validate data erasure/destruction at only one point of your process?
• Can you afford a loss of $200+ per record on drives that can hold millions of records? Is your company just hoping for the storm to pass by?

A single incident can easily cost your organization millions. Breach incidents attract the attention of Attorney Generals representing cash starved state governments, who are eager to stand out as tough defenders of privacy. Guarding against this risk must be your FIRST priority in transition/disposal of any data bearing asset.

What's a "data bearing asset"?

At U.S. Micro we regularly find and destroy assets that were overlooked, including...

• Laptops
• Computers
• Printers - many modern printers have hard drives
• Copiers
• Optical Disks (CDs/DVDs), often left in laptop cases and in disk drives
• USB drives left on desks, chairs, etc.
• Important documents left in laptop bags
• Loose hard drives
• PDAs, Cell Phones, and other portable devices

The list continues to grow as -- almost daily -- smaller media storage devices emerge into the market. Learn how our Secure Disposition Services can protect the critical assets of your organization