IT disposal causing headaches for many businesses

IT directors are thinking about donating old gear, instead of destroying it through IT disposal.

Most IT directors in the UK expect senior management to focus more on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria, as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) over the next two years. Given that their policies are seldom robust, IT directors are worried about possible damages to their organizations’ reputations, as a result of mistreatment of dead IT gear.

DSA Connect, a company that specializes in IT Disposal, the permanent deletion and destruction of electronic data, recently polled 100 IT directors and found that just a quarter consider their policies robust, while 12 percent see them as “poor”.

IT directors worry about the consequences of poor policies; mostly about IT gear ending up in waste sites located in developing countries. To tackle the issue, they are considering donating outdated equipment to schools, or to other social causes.

“Equipment should be disposed of in a way which is environmentally responsible but just as importantly there are issues around governance and commitment to local communities which should also be taken into consideration,” explained Harry Benham, Chairman of DSA Connect said.

“It is concerning that just one in four believe they have very robust policies to address these issues.”

Improperly deleting data through IT disposal can result in a data breach, should someone manage to extract sensitive data from a discarded device. This could have GDPR ramifications, something DSA Connect has long warned about.