Data is a veritable gold mine to would-be identity thieves, especially when it can be found lying in a dumpster like a fat fruit ripe for harvesting. Digging through network backdoors has given way to digging through e-waste so that shady characters can glean personal information that they sell to other parties or utilize themselves.

Protecting this data on disposed hard drives can seem like a chore compared to most work duties. “Wiping” often only removes the surface level of stored data; anyone with enough technical know-how can retrieve supposedly-deleted information and piece it together, much like re-assembling a credit card only cut up into a few pieces.

To get the job done completely takes time and energy. Or does it? A professional hard drive destruction company in New York can take care of the task in just a few minutes thanks to specialized equipment and training. Go with the safest and most convenient option by requesting on-site hard drive destruction for any equipment containing sensitive data.

One Man’s Trash…

If retrieving information off a disposed hard drive found while dumpster diving sounds like a Williamsburg-esque fairy tale, realize that the possibility is all too real.

Just a few years ago, the New York Times ran an exposé on Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre, one of the few employees to be caught explicitly and knowingly defrauding people using subprime mortgage-backed securities. Tourre had already been sued by the SEC for alleged misdeed, but much of the information theNYT ran was all-new.

How did they get it? A recovered hard drive. Some resourceful dumpster diver discovered an abandoned laptop and gifted it to an artist friend. When said friend realized that the former owner of the laptop was “Fabulous Fab” and that all of its emails were still accessible, she turned it over to the NYT.

This story illustrates how easy it can be for someone to obtain data on a supposedly discarded piece of electronic equipment, especially in a city like New York. Complete hard drive destruction is the only sure-fire method to eliminate risk and safely protect information from would-be data thieves and the occasional serendipitous artist. On-site hard drive destruction services in New York can even come to you to take care of the problem resolutely and in a matter of minutes.

Hard Drives to Hard Scrap

Proshred® arrives either as a one-time or ongoing service to pick up any hard drives you wish to discard. Our experienced technicians take custody of the devices and dispose of them on-site using either an industrial shredding machine that can reduce hard drives to chunks smaller than 3/4” or a punching system to make the disks unreadable.

Each hard drive is scanned beforehand to ensure transparency and thorough documentation. We can provide a certificate of destruction for all of the materials you destroy so you can prove, without a doubt, the completeness of the process. You can even watch us as we destroy them!

Afterwards, all materials are submitted to metal and e-waste recyclers per federal and state regulations. We also comply with privacy standards set by HIPAA, FACTA, GLBA and HITECH so that the entire process is transparent and verifiable.

Do not waste time worrying about the safety of your data or the drudgery of destroying hard drives yourself. Get the help of professionals in New York who can get done fast and get it done right.

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