Erasing data from the devices you discard is a booming business
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“Our first concern is always data, data, data, data,” Sean Magann said Sims Lifecycle Services.
Mann emphasized the primary focus of SIMs and other IT assets tendency, or emphasized the yottabytes of the data collected and stored in smartphones, computers, servers, hard drives and some medical devices-and some medical devices, which managed, used and thrown out of his life.
Regardless of whether this equipment has been dusted to lice, the data must be deleted in one way or another, regardless of whether it has been recycled for renewed or spare parts and critical materials for re -sale. Although this has a more vital role for the ITADs-for institutional, government, academic and health customers, it is also contacted by municipalities and special waste poor companies to remove data from their devices.
For the latest model in a cellular service store, consider changing an old smartphone or recycling unwanted data storage electronics for town casting. And modern “smart” cars and trucks that are full of data capture systems, traded in dealerships and return to rental companies and rental agencies.
Data confidentiality and protection is the essence of cyber security – controls how and by whom the data is collected, protected and spread, and also ensures that it does not fall into the wrong hands. However, in spite of cyber security laws, user measures such as advanced data opening software and identity authentication and encryption, Expensive data violations It occurs as routine.
This is the dirty work of cyber criminals who use it to hack, remove data and fuel identity hunting or espionage plans. A Last report He found that stolen devices and drivers were a more common method of data loss than ransom software or stolen identity information.
However, when it is time to destroy electronic devices and IT equipment, there is often less effort to have data safety. Research has shown that it is difficult to delete the remaining information without any information remains, even after the necessary deletion of files, for example, from a smartphone or a fixed drive, for example, without resetting a factory. This reality motivated the ITAD industry not only to develop more robust data providing tools and standardized processes, but also to approve its work to customers.
“Itad is not something new,” he said.
“Can you assume that the data will be deleted when you deliver your used product? No, you can’t, Marion Marion said. “You have to verify.” Trust, but verify the proverb while going.
The amount of e-ATIK is only growing
It helps to understand the volume of end-of-life or unwanted IT assets called electronic waste or e-Atık. In 2022, an increase of 82% from 2010, 62 million metric tons of e-Atık was produced globally. Latest predictions The United Nations International Telecommunications Union and research from the arm Unitar. This number is expected to reach 82 million metric tons by 2030.
In the report, the US said that 8 million tons of e-Atık in 2022. The domestic e-Atık recycling industry generated 28.1 billion dollars in 2024. IbisworldThe predicted compound annual growth rate is 8%.
This is equal to the e-Atık Megatons accumulated in storage areas, which threatens to leak various toxin types, but also offers a potential treasure for cleaners circulating to sell electronics online. As of January 1, 2025, Basel contract In part, he launched international restrictions on global e-Atık shipments to prevent inappropriate recycling practices.
Although trade partners have an impact on new changes, the US is not among the 190 countries that have signed a contract. However, many domestic itad E-Stewards Certificate This makes recycling practices compatible with the principles of the contract.
The US ITAD industry is slightly regulated as a whole, but some states follow the e-Atık disposal. “I think at some point, in our country, there will be a government intervention in our country to prevent regular storage of e-readings,” John Shegerian, CEO of an outstanding Itad Electronic Recyclers International. He said.
ITADs use three types of data-eras: physical destruction with heavy service particle; Special deletion software; and Degaussing, a method that uses strong magnets to demagnate storage devices. All three can be performed on -site or at an ITAD facilities and the software option can be made remotely. Each NIST 800 88, R2V3, NAID AAA, ISO 27001 and e-Stewards, including several different industrial certificates produces verifiable results. Experts suggest that ITAD customers should ask for official documents that equipment and data are destroyed by one or more of these certificates.
“If done properly, [wiping software] Almost 99,999% guarantees that data is going, Mag said Magann. However, for some customers, such as data centers and cloud service providers, “0.001% uncertainty is too risk. Not necessarily the data, but someone else. Although not very often, they choose to be physically destroyed. There is a certainty to see things in small pieces. ”
BLANCCO TECHNOLOGY SERVICES It is a provider of data provider software and services to large OEMs and enterprises that derive sensitive personal, institutional, government and health data as well as major ITADs such as SIMS and ERI. Maurice Uenuma, General Manager of the North American business in Blancco, has a series of tools embedded in operating systems of OEMs such as Microsoft’s Autopilot and Intune.
“Many of them have been shown to be complete, because in some cases, a driver has hidden parts that are not exposed to the end user, but some now protect the data.” He said. He continued: “Difficulty is to permanently delete a particular standard, then to provide a trace of control.”
Uenuma, these steps, treacherous actors reduce the risk of access to a physical device and lead to serious and damage to reputation, he said. He referred to two separate violations without naming the names. Morgan Stanley This resulted in 163 million dollars in seclusion fines. He also expressed a 2023 case Wistek, a driver working for a well -established Itad, rang federal government devices with sensitive data and sold them again.
Uenuma understands the best way to delete the data of IT chefs who insist on physical destruction. “As a paranoid security man, I understand why Vissceral is a tactile thing that satisfies watching a driving dust.” He said. However, data residues can even be taken from parts, so melted grated equipment is a last step that customers may prefer – although this process is criticized to spread toxic fumes.
Environmental Effects of dealing with IT assets
Concerns about environmental dangers of environmental disintegration and storage e-Attaches direct the ITAD industry to promote its role in the circular economy and its emphasis on reusing, repairing, or recycling assets. AI said that hurry to build data centers, creating a scarcity of hard drives and other memory components. “So many companies, if we can’t get new things, let’s harvest what’s out. It’s like going to a scrap. You can buy pieces from an old car and still works.”
Circularity is behind the growing market for recycled metals and rare lands extracted from old electronics. In addition, Verizon, At & T, Apple, Samsung, Dell, HP and other electronic OEMs marketed by renewed smartphones, tablets, computers and smart watches, and the back market, Amazon renewed, Gazelle and Best Buy’s Geek Squad renewed program, such as e-commerce sellers.
While keeping these devices away from izabe and regular storage areas, buyers must make sure that the previous owners have deleted their data. Therefore, for example, when consumers and businesses on smartphones – even when they raise or raise the encrypted ones, they are instructed to back up the data, log in accounts and applications, and make a factory reset. To delete data and disable activation locks.
To provide another data deletion layer, responsible sellers work with certified ITADs that send assets or delete the software from sellers such as Blancco, PhoneCheck and Certus. Although not consumers, businesses are usually given a data destruction certificate.
Waste Management, Republic Services and other Waste Imposos companies recycle electronics for residential and commercial customers. Although customers are encouraged to make self -wetting steps before the purchase, they are partnership with ITADS to delete data. “After processing the collected e-readers, housing and commercial customers get a recycling certificate,” Republic Services said in a statement. He said. “This document confirms compliance with environmental regulations and confirms that all data is safely destroyed.”
Automobile manufacturers add a number of data collection feature to today’s cars and trucks, from information-education to navigation systems. They can store data. People, call diaries, short messages, audio recordings, photos, banking information and health monitoring statistics, including drivers and passengers are often not encrypted.
Protecting these data by bad actors can be considered later. And there is no federal regulation that requires deletion of data from returning to rental cars-Although it has applied the need to delete data from the fleets of the General Services Administration, the data of the states of the states do not include the means of basketic laws.
There are tools that can be commercially supplied for businesses and consumers to address this security vulnerability, but it has been adopted according to a recent report of Privacy4Cars, a software and solution provider designed to delete data from vehicles. Andrea Amico, the founder and CEO of Privacy4Cars, said that fleet management companies that manage large automobile manufacturers and large banks that manage big corporate fleets have done a good job. “But when you reach smaller fleets or businesses, none of them really follow this process.”
Car rental companies are especially deprived of data opening processes, and instead put the agreement on the agreement documents. “If you ask me,” Amico said, “This is nonsense.” Privacy4Cars documented situations where rental cars were re -sold or rented.
Privacy4Cars, although not as comprehensive as the software it sells to consumers, businesses, offers a free data-erasure application. The company also markets data erase solutions to automobile dealers, including a certificate for receivers similar to a Carfax or Autocheck damage report.
Consumer Reports proposes tips To clean the data when selling a tool or returning rental. A critical step is to remove your phone from the information-entertainment system and then remove your personal information from any application, account or cloud-based software.
Shegerian, where the data is collected and stored, safety – and deletion – is a very serious issue that companies and consumers should give priority. “And now the data with AI is more important than ever. Wrong actors are very dangerous if they receive this information.”
