Ashley Madison – 30 million records exposed from the dating site, a $578 million class action suit filed against parent Avid Life Media.

Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta – yielded members’ names, email addresses and association ID numbers.

A Calgary wine store had to pay $500 in Bitcoin to meet a ransomware demand or lose access to its database.
A Rogers Communications staffer was the victim of a phishing attack that led to the loss of a “small number” of business agreements, which included business name, address, phone number and pricing details of the corporate customers.

Ontario’s Education ministry acknowledged that 5,000 unencrypted email addresses of people who had left contact information on a site looking a workshop were exposed.

A Toronto luxury hotel managed by one of Donald Trump’s companies was one of seven in a chain hit by POS malware. An unknown number of customers have been warned that payment card account number, card expiration date and security code may have been copied.

Symantec said four unnamed Canadian firms were among 49 organizations in more than 20 countries hit by a group looking not for credit card information but corporate data and intellectual property.

Approximately 2,200 of General Motors Finance customers was “inappropriately accessed” by a former employee which may have been used to create phoney identification.

Records of nearly 30 University of Calgary employees were been fraudulently accessed.

When you delete your files, empty your recycle bin, or clear your internet history, your data isn’t really gone. In fact with freely available tools you can fully recover all deleted data. This means your business, customer and employee data can be recovered by virtually anyone. When you delete files, all that happens is your operating system removes the reference to your file from its internal directory but the file remains there.

A common practice by corporations is to reformat or wipe the hard drives on obsolete or unused computers then sell or give these assets to employees, donate to charities or pass them on to a recycler.

Data can be recovered from ANY STORAGE MEDIUM with free, internet programs. How much is your data worth?

Ensure piece of mind and protect your data after devices have reached end of life by having them destroyed by a NAID Certified Data Destruction Facility!

According to the results of a recent Alertsec survey of 1,200 U.S. residents, 97 percent of respondents said data breaches “unsettle” them and result in negative brand perception.

Almost a third (29 percent) of respondents said it would take them several months to begin trusting a company again following a data breach.Thirty-five percent of respondents said a data breach reflects sloppiness, 32 percent said it reflects a lack of professionalism, and 26 percent said it makes a company a target for lawsuits.

How long could your business survive a Data Breach? One week, one month or maybe a year. The best way to survive a data breach is to prevent it.

Modern electronic data storage devices are extremely resilient, and data recovery techniques and technology are highly advanced. Data are routinely recovered from media which have been burned, crushed, submerged in water, or impacted from great heights. In effect, it really is quite difficult to permanently get rid of data, but the permanent and irreversible destruction of data is a cornerstone of protecting the privacy and security of business, customer and employee records. Data destruction encompasses a wide variety of media. The choice of destruction methodology should be based on the risk posed by the sensitivity of the data being destroyed and the potential impact of unauthorized disclosure.

The ONLY way to prevent data from being recovered from your storage assets is DESTRUCTION.

According to a Ponemon Institute survey customers and employees lose faith in organizations that can’t keep business and personal data safe – the impact? They take their business elsewhere. It is estimated that data breaches cost companies on average $6.6 million per breach! The highest reported breach cost one business a record $32 million dollars. The report goes on to state that “organizations must focus on proactively protecting their data instead of relying exclusively on written policies, procedures, and training.”

While many breaches do originate with outsourcing companies, contractors, consultants, and business partners this however only accounts for 44% of the breach total. It is insider negligence that’s the biggest cause of breaches. According to the Ponemon, more than 88% of the breaches arose from an insider’s mistakes.

While a significant amount of breaches are a result of poor data handling practices such as the storage of company on employees personal computers and tablets whether done locally at the business offices or remotely, the storage of business information on transportable media such a CD’s and USB sticks or the emailing of business information to third parties, customers or other employees that may be saved at their locations.

Data should be appropriately managed across the entire data lifecycle, from capture or creation to destruction. Planning for data destruction should be an integral part of any quality data management program.

Does your company have a Data Destruction Plan?