SIMS Recycling Solutions Data Erasure | Blancco Case Study

There are misconceptions in the market surrounding the effectiveness of formatting electronic devices or using free downloadable erasure software. As a result, there are a number of unsuitable solutions for corporate environments. Businesses recognize the threat of data breaches and even admit to expecting to become a victim of one, but with increasing pressure on budgets, there is a clear disconnect between this recognition and implementing a fail-proof solution.

With 80 locations spanning across five continents, SIMS Recycling Solutions provides IT and electronics recovery, reuse and recycling services to OEMs and CEMs, compliance scheme operators, businesses and government agencies throughout the UK.

Highlights

  • 6 out of 10 organizations were aware of being the target of one or multiple cyber attacks in 2016*
  • 2.9 million UK firms, or 52 percent, experienced some form of cyber-security incidents, costing them £29.1 billion**
  • 70% of UK companies experienced down time due to security incidents***

* https://blog.barkly.com/cyber-attack-statistics-2016
** https://betanews.com/2017/03/03/security-incidents-uk-businesses-2017/
*** PwC 2015 Global State of Information Security Survey

Challenge

For SIMS Recycling Solutions, manually erasing drives is only 98 percent reliable. And while 2 percent may seem like a small margin of error, it is not and can have dangerous implications. Prior to becoming an ITAD partner with Blancco, the company spent a considerable amount of time researching and evaluating the benefits of data erasure solutions. However, time and time again, the products didn’t have the bandwidth to support all types of drives. Even more frustrating was the discovery that many of the “in consideration” erasure solutions would inaccurately – and even falsely – report 100% erasure. Because transparency and ethics were of utmost importance, SIMS Recycling Solutions knew it needed to find a solution that didn’t just erase data permanently, but also provided a 100% certified, tamper- proof audit trail.

Solution

To securely erase data across a wide array of IT assets, from desktop computers, laptops and servers to smartphones, tablets and flash media devices, SIMS Recycling Solutions relied on a holistic data erasure management approach.

Using Blancco Toolkit, the company was able to quickly and effectively perform multiple erasures across all of its client locations – be it locally or remotely. Because of the company’s large size and distributed workforce, it was also equally important to be able to perform due diligence on data erasure activities. That’s where Blancco Management Console and Blancco Cloud both fulfilled this need.

Results

Performed multiple erasures across all client locations – both locally and remotely. Processed 735,000 tons of hazardous WEEE each year. Saved $3.8 million in data breach costs.

“Relying on humans to manually erase a drive is problematic in that they only execute these processes around 98% of the time. This type of margin for error is extremely dangerous.”

Jon Godfrey, Product Director, SIMS Recycling Solutions

About Blancco

As the de facto standard in data erasure, Blancco provides thousands of organizations with an absolute line of defense against costly security breaches, as well as verification of regulatory compliance through a 100% tamper-proof audit trail. Our data erasure solutions have been tested, certified, approved and recommended by 18 governing bodies around the world. No other security firm can boast this level of compliance with the most rigorous requirements set by government agencies, legal authorities and independent testing laboratories.