Few\nbusinesses realise that the data residing on personal devices could result in a\ndata breach. They also don\u2019t understand that it’s possible to recover the data\nfrom damaged hard drives, broken phones, credit card machines and even memory\ncards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xperien\nCEO Wale Arewa warns that business owners have lost track of all the devices\nthat are accessing their networks and more importantly, which staff are\naccessing confidential information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\nurgently need to secure their data, both internally and externally, to ensure\ntheir data is not compromised or that they fall prey to a data breach,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn\nnearly every business, employees have access to data that they shouldn\u2019t have.\nThis makes businesses vulnerable to data breaches, especially with cybercrime\non the rise and companies of all sizes being targeted. But whose responsibility\nis it to know which staff are privy to the most confidential digital assets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abandoned\nhardware is by far the biggest cause of data breaches and the haphazard\napproach to IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) is costing companies millions of Rands.\nMost IT managers don\u2019t have a clue what hardware they own or where the old\nredundant devices have been stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However,\nthose companies that do have a strategy, spend much of their time and effort on\ntheir Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) process but treat ITAD,\nthe last component in the ITAM process, as an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nmassive volume and variety of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices has\nbrought attention to ITAD. This has also led to new and complex legislative\nmandates for secure and environmentally responsible disposal of equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arewa\nsays data at end-of-life is a massive challenge for most companies, especially\nwith uncontrolled data growth that has resulted in new corporate policies for\ndata storage and retention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is\nlargely as a result of new global legislations and regulations such as GDPR and\nPoPIA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IT asset\ndisposal must therefore be addressed early on in the ITAM lifecycle. Businesses\nneed to define asset classes, asset use and data storage. They also need to\ntrack End of life (EOL) and End of Service (EOS) dates to prepare for upgrades,\nrecycling and proper disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\nrisk of data breaches and loss of sensitive company and customer data is one of\nthe main drivers for a sound ITAD program,\u201d said Arewa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor\nthis reason, companies are investing heavily in security and data loss\nprevention tools, especially focussing on assets that reach retirement or need\nto be disposed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To\nreduce possible company exposure to unnecessary risk, it is extremely important\nto consider ITAD across the entire lifecycle of each asset. One can reduce the\nmanual administrative burden by implementing ITAM tools that can automate trigger\nnotifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Partnering\nwith an experienced ITAM partner like Xperien will help define the appropriate\ntriggers and actions across the IT asset lifecycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ITAD\nfunction is often outsourced to a third-party to manage this responsibility.\nHowever, it is critical that when selecting a disposal vendor, that they\noperate to International standards, that they have consistently passed external\naudits, and possesses common industry certifications like ISO9001:2015. This demonstrates\nthe ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer\nand regulatory requirements and the accreditation reduces the risk for\ncustomers and gives them complete confidence that the vendor has been\nindependently evaluated for our competence and performance capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arewa\nsays companies like Xperien help customers move away from the traditional\nlinear economy by encouraging a more circular economy by keeping precious\nresources in use for as long as possible instead of disposing of them at an\nearly stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith\nvarious lease options available today, the new trend is to move away from\nowning products, businesses can now keep up with latest technologies without tying\nup working capital,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cXperien\nenables companies to lease high specification, refurbished laptops and PCs at a\nlow cost. Secure data destruction is done at the end of each lease to eliminate\nany concern of disposing of company data.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Few businesses realise that the data residing on personal devices could result in a data breach. They also don\u2019t understand that it’s possible to recover the data from damaged hard drives, broken phones, credit card machines and even memory cards. Xperien CEO Wale Arewa warns that business owners have lost track of all the devices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":29696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,5,6,10675,13,262],"tags":[11479,11481,11480,11482,155,390,2024,7045,11478,6559,6150,1968],"class_list":["post-29694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-enterprise-security","category-insights","category-thought-leadership","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-end-of-life","tag-end-of-service","tag-eol","tag-eos","tag-internet-of-things","tag-iot","tag-it-asset-disposition","tag-itad","tag-itam","tag-popia","tag-wale-arewa","tag-xperien"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29694"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29702,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29694\/revisions\/29702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}