As Warren Buffett once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” This can be especially true today, secure data destruction of end-of-life and re-marketed assets becomes imperative.
A company’s brand is among its most valued and most vulnerable asset in today’s ITAD industry. In fact, reputation-linked losses at public companies have increased by 301 percent over the past five years, according to a study by Steel City Re. When it comes to your brand, extensive measures should be taken to keep the company’s data private and secure.
When it comes to correctly disposing of large volumes of data, ITAD plays a central role in an organization’s brand protection strategy. A tested, defensible brand protection plan should address the following four elements:
1. Safeguard intellectual property
The data your company owns and stores needs to be protected at every touch point. Especially across extended supply chains and outsourced components.
Forward-thinking ITAD companies should understand an asset’s chain of custody as well as they understand the asset itself. Further, the secure ITAD process doesn’t end once the data leaves the four walls of a secure facility. If there is remaining value in components, ensure it is handed off to a responsible vendor or establish effective processes to sanitize or destroy data onsite.
2. Anticipate intentional or unintentional threats
Every day, brand saboteurs intentionally or unintentionally intrude, phish and hack supposedly secure data. Considering the rate at which new technologies and intrusion tactics are being created, it is unlikely that any company can completely predict a breach. Although, staying one step ahead of technology and anticipating potential threats can be powerful weapons against brand sabotage.
3. Understand your current landscape
Know the crown jewels and risks of your enterprise. It’s crucial to implement security measures including thorough background checks, user authentication methods and infrastructure protection. All it takes is one vulnerability among these measures that could result in something catastrophic to the success of your company.
4. Establish governance
Protecting your company’s brand is an obligation for every person involved. A cohesive governance system can help ensure the above components are successfully executed in concert and include means for measurement, monitoring and continuous improvement.
The return on brand protection in ITAD
There is a substantial opportunity in considering brand protection in the full business context and linking it to strategy and planning. In so doing, brand protection becomes more than just a risk to manage, but a critical asset that can be leveraged to help enable the organization’s overall success.
Data Destruction: Four Proven Methods
Data destruction standards vary by industry, but the trend is clearly toward higher levels of data protection utilizing increasingly secure destruction methods especially in financial services (PCI-DSS), healthcare (HIPAA) and defense sectors, where data exposure represents a great risk to the company’s brand reputation and protection.
Sipi Asset Recovery is the only ITAD company with a complete portfolio of all four methods of secure destruction:
Method 1: Secure Data Wiping
Method 2: Drive Shredding & Crushing
Method 3: Degaussing
Method 4: Sipi FIREMELT℠
Secure data destruction is a complex process. Deciding which method of data destruction to protect your brand requires a careful calculation of your company’s IT asset mix. Sipi Asset Recovery offers the specialized know-how and deep technical knowledge to help clients master their unique business and compliance challenges related to secure digital asset management and ultimate brand protection.
