Consequences of Improper Data Destruction

We all know that getting rid of or destroying your hard drives and personal information is important, but did you also know that the government imposes heavy fines and penalties for people who don't properly destroy personal information before throwing away or recycling your old technology?! Data confidentiality is highly regulated by the U.S. Government. For example, the healthcare industry has the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA as the rest of us call it), the banking and financial industry has Sarbanes-Oxley (or SOX for short). These guidelines are in place to carefully regulate the rules put on confidential personal information and the way that it is stored and subsequently destroyed. In the past it was a good idea to keep data secure in order to not have to deal with the public embarrassment of losing such data, now its the law. Furthermore, companies can face huge financial penalties. Even more scary is that company officers and directors can actually face time in prison. See below for a breakdown of the penalties for breaking these stringent laws:

Make sure you dont get in trouble, make sure before you get rid of anything that you make sure it contains ZERO confidential information, or think about hiring an asset management company to take care of that work for you.