MSR Consulting TechnoBlog

Recycling your electronics can be dangerous

June 26th, 2006

We all want to be good stewards, and there is some pretty nasty stuff inside your computer that requires it to be handled special when you are going to recycle it, and while donating that computer is even better in regards to getting it off of your hands with the least amount of fuss there are a couple of things you had better take care of first.  Or you might be kicking yourself later.

One of the services our retainer clients receive from us is the recycling of their computers, cellphones, toner etc. that require special consideration when being disposed of.  It’s definitely one of less glamorous things we provide, but it got me to thinking that many small and medium businesses out there either do not understand the importance of doing it right when it comes to disposing of certain types of equipment or just haven’t ever thought about.  We have all heard horror stories about laptops being stolen, but you are hundreds of times more likely to have an old piece of equipment wind up in someones hands than by having something stolen.  When it comes to devices which can store data there are some very real dangers out there.  So here is a quick guide on what to understand.

• Hard Drives:  Even the most seemingly benign computer in your organization contains information on its hard drive that could allow someone to breech your network.  In addition it will likely contain personal information on one or more persons that should not be exposed to outside parties, confidential corporate information, tax records, financials, etc.  Regardless of whether or not you believe a hard drive is no longer working, or you ‘deleted’ the data off of it, etc., unless you have used specific precautions the data can almost always still be obtained.  Contrary to popular belief, deleting a file and emptying your recycle bin does not erase the file.  The best method of protection of course is to physically destroy the hard drive.  But when recycling or donating a computer this isn’t always going to be an option since good stewardship may mean wanting someone else to still get usefullness out of your old equipment.  The next best thing is to do a secure wipe of the hard drive using a utility specifically for the job.  There are dozens of programs out there specifically for this purpose, ranging from expensive ones targeted at enterprise customers to free utilitites.  Most are very easy to use, but can be time consuming depending upon the number of wipes you want to make (The Department Of Defense specifications require at least 4 wipes).  Our recommendation is to base your level of precaution and time expenditure on the perceived data sensitivity of your company and/or the computer in question.  For a low risk environment or computer formatting the hard drive and running a single wipe with a wiping utility may be just fine, for a server or machine that runs your financials then you may wish to take a little more time and run a few more wipes.  There are a considerable number of companies out there that only do computer recycling, finding one will not be an issue.  However, there is no true oversight or “seal of approval” in this industry yet.  So even though most of them will tell you that wiping your hard drive is the first thing they do when they receive your computer you really have no guarantees that is the case.  A recent study showed that a full 7 out of 10 devices sold on eBay still contained readable information.  Our recommendation is to still wipe your hard drive even if using one of these firms.  If you absolutely do not want to spend the time to do that then your best bet is to investigate the computers manufacturer and see if they have a recycling program, most of them do, albeit for a small fee ($20-35 usually).  Because of the high liability involved and the impact to their brand name the larger computer manufacturers actually provide good diligence when insuring that your data is destroyed.

• Cellphones: You have probably noticed bins popping up at your local electronics stores for recycling toner cartridges, cellphones, etc.  And if you are anything like me you have several old cellphones lying around that you will never use again.  Keep in mind that your cellphone is likely to still have plenty of information it about your contacts, phone numbers, emails, etc., and as cellphones evolve into “smartphones” they are containing just as much sensitive information as your computers.  Unlike computer hard drives however there aren’t a lot of utilities out there for wiping a phone.  In most cases there is way to reset your phone back to factory defaults, this should at least make it more difficult.  We don’t always have charged batteries or chargers around for these phones though so doing so may be more difficult than it seems.  If the electronics store with the recycling bin sells cellphones (and who doesn’t these days) then take it to the service representative to see if they can assist in resetting the phone.  Alternatively the folks at ReCellular have a Cellphone Data Eraser page that lets you choose the brand and model of cellphone and then displays the commands you need to delete every piece of data from it.  In the case of smartphones you should delete the data on the built in storage memory, reset the device, and insure you remove any add-on memory cards before recycling.  There is also one other danger worth mentioning here, do not under any circumstances provide a phone to be recycled that still has an active service contract on it.  This may sound like a stupid comment but lots of people switch from one provider to another just before their contract is up,  They inform their prior provider that they will be canceling on the renewal date, get a new phone from the new provider, and will never open up the old phone again.  One lady dropped her old phone in a bin at Best Buy (after clearing out her data, etc.) and it somehow (they just reached into the open bin) ended up in the hands of someone who ran up over $20,000 in charges in the few remaining days of her old contract.  Live and learn.
  

Some wiping utilities:

Computer Recycling Info:

• Green Design Computer Recycling Page
• National Recycling Coalition—Electronics Recycling Initative
• Dell Recycling
• PC Disposal
• Retire-IT.com
• Donate Your Old Computers
• ComputerRecyclingUSA.com

Cheers,

Matt Ridings
MSR Consulting

Entry Filed under: General Technology, Consulting