Tech giants found destroying thousands of data storage devices every year – but why?
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In a practice that many experts would describe as “killing a fly with an atomic bomb,” it turns out that many of the world’s largest tech companies destroy thousands of storage devices every year to stay compliant with data protection regulations.
According to the Financial times (FT), both Amazon and Microsoft (two of the world’s largest data centers) (opens in new tab) operators) would rather physically destroy every piece of data-carrying hardware they no longer intend to use than risk data leaks by wiping the devices clean and selling them on the secondary market.
“If We Let One” [piece of data] slip, we lose the trust of our customers,” an Amazon employee told the FT, on condition of anonymity. Amazon declined to comment.
Is disk erasing so dangerous?
However, it is not just data center operators, as public sector organizations, various ministries, police forces and many others are reportedly all choosing to physically destroy the equipment for the same reasons.
At the same time, data center equipment decommissioning has transformed into a full-fledged industry, and professionals working there are arguing against this practice.
Cleaning up the endpoints and selling them in the secondary markets has multiple benefits and very little risk – if done right. Some materials used to make data storage units are difficult to obtain. Plus, refurbished gear no longer performs significantly worse than new gear, so it makes sense in terms of performance too. And of course – it’s cheaper and “greener”.
But experts must be called in, otherwise the risk of disaster is quite high. A prime example of bad practice came from Morgan Stanley, who was fined last month after hiring an inexperienced company to handle the hard drive dismantling. Instead of properly wiping the drives, the contractor sold the devices online — with the data still on them, prompting an embarrassing response from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Morgan Stanley ended up paying $35 million to settle.
TechRadar Pro has contacted Amazon and Microsoft for comment.
Through: Financial times (opens in new tab)