Recently at an executive briefing on information technology legal compliance attended by senior management and IT professionals, an informal poll of the attendees was made. The question: “What does your business do with decommissioned computer equipment?” Attendees were proud of the benevolent response they could provide — “We donate our used computer equipment to charity!” Another attendee responded, “Our equipment is donated to underprivileged schools and daycare centers.” Others indicated that obsolete equipment was offered to employees for purchase. Some admitted, “We just stack it up in a closet, some day we’ll do something about it.” A few admitted to pitching old CPUs, monitors and keyboards into the office dumpster. One business had a policy of formatting the hard disk with FDISK before donating it to charity. An interesting response was, “We use a power drill to impale the hard drive before we pitch it into the company dumpster.” The question was asked because of two primary IT compliance issues. Most of the responses above fail to address protection of potentially sensitive data and software licensing issues on decommissioned hardware. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.