If you’re involved in the shredding industry or happen to keep up with the latest news, you’ve undoubtedly heard about shredding hard drives. It is an extremely important aspect of information security. But it’s not just all papers and hard drives that need to be taken care of. There are other electronic devices that should be taken to the shredder. In particular, old cell phones pose an issue that some do not think of right away.
Old Cell Phones Pose a Risk
It’s not an uncommon practice for people to take their old cell phones to an electronics store to trade it in for an upgrade. This is perfectly normal, just about all of us do that these days, but are we sure it’s the best thing for our data? Naturally, the store you go into clears the data from your old device, after transferring it to the new one, of course. While they no doubt do a fine job, are you sure you want to trust your data to it? After all, they do get repurposed and resold later on.
We don’t intend to cast doubt on the electronics industry, of course; our sole concern is with promoting data security. Some people choose to hold onto their old devices when they get a new phone instead of trading it in. The old one just ends up collecting dust, usually on some shelf somewhere. Clearly this isn’t an ideal situation, especially if you forget it and then lose it, and then someone else picks it up.
What To Do
So comes the obvious question and answer: what is the best way to handle these? Shred the old device. Just like with your old hard drives, the only way to be sure is complete physical destruction. There are plenty of e-waste recycling options these days, and they do a worthy job, but some may still have worries, or be unable to find peace of mind with this solution.
One way to help relieve this problem is by using a service that lets you view the process happen. This is one of the best ways to ensure your peace of mind. From there, if you are using a certified service, you will get a certificate of destruction as proof of secure shredding.
All it takes is one quick phone call or contact form submission to get you scheduled for this service. Reach out – we’re here to help.
