School administrators, beware! We know that educators make the welfare and education of students their top priority…and that can take up most of their time, energy and resources. Maintaining a safe environment for students to learn may mean that school administrators haven’t given any thought to other security issues – like data security. But in today’s school environment, administrators would be wise to think about it.
Not too long ago we were asked to go to a private school to collect some data containing devices for data destruction and electronics recycling. The school operations manager had put all of the electronics to be picked up, including quite a few desktop computers, in a stack between two classrooms. Teachers passing by on their way to class began poking through the desktop computers. When they realized that the computers were no longer going to be used at the school, they decided it would okay to take them home.
“Hey, if we don’t need these at the school anymore, I’m going to take one home for my son to use,” one of them said. It seemed reasonable and innocent enough, but we immediately notified the school principal and explained to him why he should be concerned data security.
You see, it is very possible, and even likely, that information, private information, about his students could still have been on those computer hard drives. Suppose this teacher’s son (a teenager, perhaps?) got into the data on that computer and discovered some information about any one of the students. How safe would that be? How would the school administrator know where that data could end up?
With issues like bullying in schools, is this a risk any school administrator would want to take? This situation was even more sensitive since the school served students with special needs – but every school administrator should be concerned about data security regarding their out of use data containing devices.
Thankfully, we were able to make sure that none of the computers left the school and that all the data was safely and properly destroyed, Data security is our priority – being sure school records, business secrets, and personally identifiable consumer information are safely destroyed is what we do. If you have old data containing devices that you need to get rid of and are concerned about data security, give us a call.