Protecting Client Information Is Crucial for Success

Most people still imagine endless stacks of paper waiting to be shredded when they think about secure data disposal. However, in today’s business environment, a large amount of sensitive information lives on computers, servers, and external drives. If your business handles medical or consumer information, you must dispose of these devices properly to protect your clients. That’s where two major regulations designed to protect personal data come in: HIPAA and FACTA. Proper hard drive destruction is one of the most effective ways to stay compliant and avoid costly risks. Working with a certified professional shredding company is the risk-free solution.

What HIPAA and FACTA Require from Businesses

Each regulation covers different industries:

• HIPAA Requirements: HIPAA protects your patients’ personal and medical information. Many times, we might forget how much of that information sits on old hard drives. Electronic personal health information (PHI) can include names, medical histories, billing information, and even images or lab results.

HIPAA requires covered industries to dispose of all electronic media securely. However, simply deleting files or wiping a drive isn’t enough because data can still be recovered. If a hard drive containing patient information is lost or not properly destroyed, your organization could face serious fines and penalties.

• FACTA Requirements: FACTA protects consumers from identity theft. Any business that collects or stores consumer information, such as financial firms, real estate agencies, auto dealers, and retailers, must follow FACTA’s disposal rule.

This rule requires your company to destroy consumer data so that it cannot be read or reconstructed. Since your hard drives store more information than almost any paper file, they pose a significant risk if not handled correctly. FACTA makes it clear that businesses must take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorized access during disposal.

Why Hard Drive Destruction Is Your Best Solution

There are several ways to remove data from your old hard drives, but not all of them meet compliance standards. You can choose:

• Wiping to delete files, but recovery tools can often bring them back.
• Degaussing scrambles data on magnetic drives, but it doesn’t work on many modern devices.
• Physical destruction, with a professional company, shreds or crushes a hard drive and guarantees the data is completely unrecoverable.

Benefits of Using a Professional Hard Drive Deconstruction Service

Working with a professional document and device destruction provider gives your company an added layer of protection, including:

• Secure chain of custody: Your hard drives are tracked from pickup to destruction, ensuring they stay protected at every step.
• On-site and off-site options: You may prefer to watch your hard drives being destroyed on-site, while others may use secure off-site services.
• Trained and screened staff: Professionals follow strict procedures for handling, transporting, and destroying electronic media.
• Certificate of destruction: After destruction, you receive documentation showing that the drives were handled correctly. This certificate is crucial for HIPAA and FACTA audits.

Steps Your Business Can Take to Stay Compliant

Staying compliant doesn’t have to be complicated when you take a few small steps to reduce the risk of data breaches and stay aligned with federal regulations:

• Create an internal policy for archiving and disposing of electronic media.
• Keep a schedule for replacing old devices.
• Store old hard drives in a secure location until destruction.
• Work with a certified shredding and destruction company you can trust.
• Train employees on your data disposal procedures.

Stay Compliant with Help from Crown Information Management

Protecting sensitive information isn’t just good practice; it’s the law. HIPAA and FACTA both require businesses to destroy electronic data securely, and hard drive destruction is the most effective way to do so. Crown Information Management offers both on-site and off-site hard drive destruction services, providing a secure and flexible solution. We will also provide you with a Certificate of Destruction as proof of proper handling and destruction. Our team is well-trained in HIPAA and FACTA guidelines, and we maintain a secure facility to protect your records, both on-site and off-site. From hard drive and X-ray destruction to shredding and storage, we are ready to help. Call us today! 

For experienced help with media destruction, shredding, scanning, indexing, records management, and document storage, call Crown Information Management. You can reach us at 800-979-9545 or contact us online to learn more about our services. Let our team work for you. We are a SOC1, NAID AAA, and PCI-certified company.