Unconventional Holidays, Conventional Wisdom and IT t Disposition by Jennifer Burl

August means vacation time. Individuals and families abandon their homes en masse in search of a little fun and well-deserved rest and relaxation. And if that wasn't enough reason to love this hot, sunny month, August has a few more, albeit obscure, reasons to celebrate. Did you know that today, August 7, is National Lighthouse Day? And this year, August marks the 37th anniversary of the first commercially sold computer - a computer made for regular people, not just for geeks. The TRS-80, sold by RadioShack, was equipped with up to 16 KB of memory and could store an additional 49 KB of data on an optional floppy disk drive. It's hard to imagine a computer with so little computing power, isn't it?

Looking back at the TRS-80, I can't help but be amazed by the pace of technological innovation. In just 37 years, we've gone from a clunky computer with 16 KB of memory, to sleek, pocket-sized smart phones with upwards of 16 GB of available storage. The tricky part for businesses is to keep pace with this explosion of data and devices. And when IT asset refresh cycles shorten as technology leaps forward - what happens to these old gadgets? Do they end up in a closet? Under a desk? Neither option is a good choice. Those assets, if not securely disposed of, are a huge liability for an organization. In what became an unfortunate cautionary tale, the Affinity Health Plan data breach made headlines in 2010. When several photo copiers were returned at the end of their lease, patient data for over 300,000 individuals was found on the machines' hard drives. This breach was a potent reminder that data must be secured throughout its entire lifecycle. Affinity received a huge fine (over $1M), but they weren't the only transgressors. Data from the Buffalo, New York police department and payroll information for a construction company were also found on the copier hard drives.

A secure IT asset disposition expert, like Iron Mountain, can make the destruction of end-of-life IT assets simple. Whether you need to destroy old computers, servers, copiers, storage devices, hard drives, backup tapes, CDs, DVDs or other media, you'll have access to our strong chain of custody when your media is transported and destroyed. Additionally, you'll receive a certificate of destruction so that you can be confident that your digital files have been securely erased and are gone for good. And perhaps after your old assets are securely destroyed, you can just kick back on August 15 - it's National Relaxation Day.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/data-backup-and-recov...
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