The regular use of data eraser software is a must in the modern age. A data breach could potentially put your business or agency on the hook for millions of dollars in damages. Let’s take one simple example. If you’re using a time clock app, you can track employees’ overtime. If someone outside your company gets a hold of this information, they can know not only when your staff works, but also how much they earn (or don’t earn) for that overtime. This alone can be tough to deal with, and there are many more serious examples of breaches. Effectively erasing data should be a regular part of your IT best practices in order to prevent unauthorized access and to protect your customers, your clients and even you as an individual. Here are some of the top reasons why you should be regularly incorporating the use of data eraser software.
1. Privacy Protection
Protecting the private information of people is the number one reason why eraser software is necessary. Identity theft is a booming market and therefore, timely data erasure is something that businesses and government agencies should practice. The longer a source of data is available, the greater the risk that it will eventually be breached. Many government agencies are only allowed to store an individual’s data for certain periods of time (such as FBI background checks for firearm purchases). Businesses likewise have an ethical responsibility to past customers, to ensure that their identity or financial information is not breached.
2. Cost Effective
The use of data eraser software will save an organization or business money over the long run. A misconception that many people have is that data only needs to be erased from a device when it reaches the end of its lifespan, and the device is about to be scrapped. This is no longer practical, given the increased lifespan of many complex storage devices. It makes more sense financially to erase the data from these devices periodically instead of completely destroying them. Instead of reassigning or selling an old storage device, many companies and organizations can realize a significant cost savings by erasing their data and reusing the device.
3. “Delete” Doesn’t MeanTheData Is Gone
Surveys reveal that a shocking number of computer users believe that placing a file in a computer’s recycle bin and deleting it has made the file go away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Engineers, IT specialists and law enforcement recover files all the time that have simply been run through the recycle bin. Deleting files from a device and erasing files are two completely different actions. The only way to truly ensure that data is gone when you want it to be gone, is to erase it with powerful software.
4. Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Depending on the type of business you run, or the government agency involved, there are multiple regulatory and legal requirements for erasing data. The Department of Homeland Security requires data erasure software that has an Evaluation Assurance Level of 2 or more, the payment card industry has standards for online credit card transactions, and so on. The software you use for data erasure and tracking of deletion needs to be robust enough to meet these requirements.