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.