Why ITAD Matters to Risk Management Professionals

Risk management within an organisation is critical for assessing, responding to, and monitoring risks. One of the biggest IT risks to organisations in recent years has been the rise in data breaches, which have become more costly and more severe than ever before. 

The risk management professionals within an organisation must therefore identify and manage risks associated with IT as part of an organisational risk management strategy, including IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) for the safe and secure destruction of any sensitive data. 

Data Breaches: A Major Risk to Organisations 

One of the most pernicious threats to organisations today is a data breach. With so much data now being commonly held on centralised servers – much of it sensitive in nature – the crippling effect of having that data compromised can lead to much more than financial damage (which alone can be extremely high). 

 Many large corporations have suffered damage to their reputation, in turn losing customers and market share to competitors. Many have been widely publicised in news media, casting doubt on the future of the business and perhaps even driving down shareholder trust and hurting share prices for publicly traded corporations. 

Rates of Data Breaches on the Rise 

In the European Union, Ireland ranked third in terms of the per capita rate of data breaches in 2020, with 127.8 breaches per 100,000 inhabitants. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission reported that there were 6,615 data breaches in Ireland in 2020. 

 These figures should sound alarming, especially when one considers that Ireland is home to many Big Tech entities and a thriving digital economy is in full bloom. Moreover, the public sector has also suffered from notable, high-profile data breaches and ransomware attacks in recent years, which should have risk management professionals taking note. 

More Than Just Financial Damage 

The consequences of a data breach, not considering the intervention of government or supranational entities such as the EU, are already bad enough as they are. With the average cost of a data breach in 2022 being estimated at around $4.35 million (about €4.22 million), the financial damage alone should be enough of a punishment to an organisation. 

When one does consider the EU, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) implemented in 2018 brings additional consequences for organisations that do not properly account for risks such as data breaches containing sensitive data on residents of EU member states. 

GDPR Fines and Risk-Based Approaches 

The goal of GDPR is not simply to punish those businesses that collect or share (or mishandle, such as losing data in a data breach) data, however. This can be seen as the stick; the carrot is the preferred avenue for organisations. Whereas the stick is fines ranging up to €20 million (or more for particularly egregious violations), the carrot is the formation of good due diligence and compliance with regards to data protection. 

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, for example, outlines a risk-based approach that any organisation can and should follow in order to remain GDPR-compliant. Doing so benefits the business by mitigating violations (the stick) and by improving overall data security and protection processes (the carrot). Moreover, this naturally benefits anyone else that would have been affected if a data breach were to have happened. 

 It’s a win-win, and it’s all based on the appropriate and diligent identification, classification, and management of risks with regards to data. 

ITAD Services and Risk Management 

Naturally, a major segment of your organisation’s risk management strategy must be dedicated to IT, within which a portion should be allocated to IT asset disposition (ITAD). Having the best firewall and network protection can reduce “frontal assaults” from would-be cybercriminals, but it doesn’t take a savvy hacker to steal an old discarded hard drive containing unencrypted data on all of your customers, for example. 

 If your organisation has top-notch cybersecurity, it must also have secure ITAD processes. An ITAD Company is the preferred method of performing Data Destruction for discarded hard drives and other media, but they provide other services such as IT Solutions and Data Centre Services that can help organisations safely dispose of IT assets whilst minimising the risks of data breaches. 

Why ITAD Matters to Risk Management Professionals 

ITAD provides risk management professionals with solutions that are thorough and secure. For example, Hard Drive Disposal processes such as shredding or disintegrating can render the magnetic media of a hard drive completely useless (down to a fine dust, essentially), so there is absolutely no way of ever retrieving that data afterwards. 

Other, less destructive methods of data destruction exist that are best left to ITAD providers such as Wisetek. When the IT asset is no longer needed but can still be reused, destroying all sensitive data and refurbishing the device can help organisations remain compliant and sustainable. 

Wisetek does this by operating a Circular Economy whereby refurbished IT assets are remarketed on the Wisetek Store. These sorts of solutions are preferable since they fulfil our Zero-Landfill Policy whilst simultaneously helping organisations achieve a maximum ROI on their assets, staying secure, and reducing the needless e-waste cluttering up landfills globally. 

Manage IT Risk Efficiently with ITAD Services from Wisetek 

Wisetek is a global leader in IT asset disposition, providing secure data destruction, Data Centre Decommissioning, and much more. We are committed to environmental stewardship through our Zero-Landfill Policy and by remarketing all refurbished IT assets on the Wisetek Store (Wisetek Store).  

For more information, please contact enquiries@wisetek.net or visit our website. 

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