Data Deletion vs. Data Destruction: What’s the difference?

Posted in Blog

Glenn Laga

Whether you are a small business or a larger company dealing with highly classified information, one thing is for sure – you don’t want strangers with bad intentions to get their hands on any of your data. Along with your business’s personal financial documents, your computers may be holding information about your customers as well. When you do not destruct this data properly, you’re basically telling other people it’s okay to steal information from you and those who have entrusted their business to you.

Some businesses think they are doing the right thing before disposing of IT/data storage devices by deleting all of the files on their own. The truth is that even when files are emptied from your computer’s Trash, they’re not completely gone. The content of those files still exist on the drive until they are overwritten or destructed. Don’t ever convince yourself that you’ve completed deleted private information; even if you can’t seem to find it on your computer anymore, it’s still in a location where hackers and identity thieves can easily use it to their advantage.

Instead of trying to get rid of sensitive information on your own, contact Guardian Data Destruction to do it for you. Guardian doesn’t just hit the “delete” button or drag your files over to the Trash – we destruct data in a way that ensures it is never coming back. Depending on what your company requires, we can:

• Erase data. If you want to get rid of sensitive data, but you still want to use the device it is stored on, we can come on-site and erase the data without damaging the equipment.
• Shred data. With this option, your data storage devices are taken to our Mobile IT Lab and shredded into 1/2 inch pieces.
• Pin data. If your company does not want any devices to leave the property, we will come on-site and provide the pinning mutilation process for you.

The bottom line is that you should never hit the “delete” button and assume your incredibly important documents, files and programs are completely gone. Call a professional data destruction service and rest easy knowing your private information will not be compromised.