Secure Data Shredding Program

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

According to statistics published in 2015 by the Ponemon Institute, “the average cost damages resulting from data breaches in the United States now reach $6.5 million.” One potential source of data leaks is discarded hard drives and other storage media. Not only can a hard drive contain sensitive data, it may also contain information leading to passwords or other links that could provide access to an organization’s network. To combat the potential for data loss through storage media, and to help County departments control the costs of these efforts, Maricopa County Risk Management (MCRM) has implemented an internal media shredding service. Using this simple - and free - service allows all County departments to participate. And, in keeping with Maricopa County’s environmental stewardship goals, the metal scrap generated from the shredding process is turned over to the County’s internal recycling program. Since the program began in February 2017, close to 6,000 hard drives have been shredded. Even using a conservative estimates, the savings over using a vendor provided service have more than covered the cost of the hard drive shredder and the labor involved in operating it. But even better, MCRM has ensured that data theft from discarded storage devices will not occur.