Home > Resource Center > Blog > 30 common places your company data is stored (and waiting for a breach)
30 common places your company data is stored (and waiting for a breach)

30 common places your company data is stored (and waiting for a breach)

Posted in Blog

Glenn Laga

Data destruction is the last phase of IT equipment lifecycle planning. The end goal is to make sure that no data remains on lease returns, equipment bound for recycling or handed over to the next guy in line for a replacement laptop. Knowing where your data is stored (or hiding) is an essential part of preventing a data breach.

It’s not a scavenger hunt

But it can feel like it. IT equipment is super complex these days (and it’s getting smarter every day). Knowing where to find the data so that you can make a comprehensive plan for data destruction is getting harder and harder.

30 places your company data may be stored

Here’s a quick list of common and possibly overlooked corporate devices and office equipment that are storing (hiding?) your data. Any one of them could be a huge risk for a data breach.

  1. Work-issued laptops and desktop computers
  2. Personal/home computers
  3. Motherboards with SSD drives
  4. Thumb drives / USB drives
  5. External hard drives
  6. Tablets
  7. Badges, IDs
  8. X-rays
  9. CDs and DVDs
  10. Copiers
  11. Printers
  12. Hard drives
  13. Solid State Drives (SSD)
  14. Cell phones
  15. Point of Sale (POS) Devices
  16. Tapes/Magnetic tapes
  17. Arrays
  18. Storage area networks (SAN)
  19. Network area storage (NAS)
  20. Backup tapes / magnetic tapes
  21. JAZ and ZIP discs
  22. Memory chips and sticks
  23. Military gear
  24. Smart phones
  25. Video tape
  26. Transmitters
  27. Pagers
  28. Rental cars and lease returns (smart phone connection)
  29. Shipping/inventory scanners
  30. Cloud service providers (data centers and their backups)

Help is right here

Your ITAD, VAR or even head of data security should be able to help you put together a list of possible sources that could be holding onto potentially harmful company data. And advise you on a best practices plan to ensure that the data is destroyed so that you can rest easy.

If you need help, talk to us. Without obligation. We’re happy to give you a quick evaluation of data destruction options so that you can stomp out risk wherever it may be. And, we can refer you to a VAR or ITAD if you need one.

To learn more about data destruction options, download our Data Destruction 101 guide or read our data destruction services section of the website. And, if we missed a data hidey-hole that you’ve discovered, let us know.

Ready to get started?

Get a quote > Discuss your challenge >

Glenn Laga Nominated as President-Elect for the 2023 i-SIGMA Board of Directors

How will i-SIGMA continue to enhance secure information lifecycle management? Glenn Laga weighs in on the trends that the Guardian Data Destruction team has identified …

Glenn Laga Nominated as President-Elect for the 2023 i-SIGMA Board of Directors Keep Reading >

Keep Reading >

Think you have an air-tight data destruction plan? How we found 18,000 GB of unknown, unidentified and unrecorded server data storage in a 1-day audit.

Hidden hard drives, loaded with data, are walking out of data centers. Not in pockets or backpacks. They’re actually just completely missed, overlooked, data storage …

Think you have an air-tight data destruction plan? How we found 18,000 GB of unknown, unidentified and unrecorded server data storage in a 1-day audit. Keep Reading >

Keep Reading >

Retired IT assets are a big data breach problem if you’re skipping a visual hunt for installed, hidden and state-of-the-art hard drives

Worried about cybersecurity? Add overlooked data storage on retired enterprise IT devices to your IT asset disposition process. Because the physical shape and size of …

Retired IT assets are a big data breach problem if you’re skipping a visual hunt for installed, hidden and state-of-the-art hard drives Keep Reading >

Keep Reading >

Stay in the know

Get relevant information right in your inbox

We do not sell or share your information with anyone

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this