Understanding the importance of securing data is a vital part of any financial organisation's operations

Financial companies are very instrumental to the economy of any nation, especially in today’s highly technological world. They often have access to large amounts of sensitive financial information, making them perfect targets for cybercriminals and liable to data security breaches. To ensure peace of mind in the industry, there are several laws and regulations that regulate secure data disposal procedures. This blog will talk about how secure data erasure can help keep these organisations from falling victim to fraud. When it comes to safeguarding sensitive data, financial institutions must be extremely careful. The risk of cyberattacks on these companies is high, and in the event of an attack, the repercussions can be severe.

Terrorist organisations, cyber criminals, and hostile state actors are known to pose a significant risk to various financial organisations. These include banks, credit card companies, mortgage brokers, and insurance firms. Due to the evolution of attack techniques, banks are at high risk. These organisations must take various measures to protect their client information. Besides that, they also must follow contractual and regulatory requirements to safeguard their data.

What’s the best way to protect sensitive data when your company’s IT assets are retired or decommissioned? We at RADtech don’t just believe that Secure Data Erasure is the right solution for financial companies but is also in fact “crucial“!

What is Secure Data Erasure?

In order to render data irrecoverable and unusable, Secure Data Erasure utilizes a process known as overwriting. This involves writing the data with a series of zeros and 1s to make it permanently unusable. This method is performed through a software-based process. It ensures that the device remains usable while erasing sensitive information. Unlike methods such as degaussing and destruction, which severely affect the device, secure data erase does not harm the device itself. It also offers an eco-friendlier alternative to replacing equipment. It renders devices reusable and lowers the cost of doing so.

Why is Secure Data Erasure Crucial for Financial Companies?

A secure data erasure solution helps financial firms protect their sensitive information. It does so by permanently wiping away the data stored on various devices. It also ensures that the information of its employees and customers is protected from unauthorized access. Here are some reasons why secure data disposal is needed:

Compliance: Financial Companies must follow various regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Protection of Personal Information Act of 2013 (POPI) to protect and secure the sensitive data they collect.
Organisation reputation: A data breach can have a significant impact on a company’s reputation and customer trust. It can also lead to potential lawsuits.
Protection of sensitive information in order to prevent fraud and identity theft, financial institutions store and protect the sensitive information they gather, such as credit card details and personal information.
Prevents data resale. Improper data destruction can lead to the resale of old devices that contain sensitive information, putting the organisation and its customers at risk.

Financial firms are subject to various regulations and laws that require them to secure the disposal of customer data. Let’s have a deeper look at some of these laws and regulations:

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) states that entities or individuals that process or collect consumer information must ensure that the information is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized people.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS): In order to comply with the regulations, the PCI DSS, which is the security standard for the payment card industry, requires financial firms to regularly purge unnecessary data. In addition, section 9.8.2 of the law requires data deletion of all credit card information.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) requires organisations to develop and implement policies and procedures that protect the information they store and use. They also must ensure that no data leakage occurs during the lifecycle of their operations.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act Disposal Rule (FACTA Act of 2003) also requires individuals and businesses to take the necessary steps to properly dispose of the sensitive information they collect.

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) also requires financial firms to implement effective measures to protect the confidentiality and integrity of their customer’s financial information.

Aside from protecting their customers’ information, financial firms also need to ensure that data is properly disposed of. Here are some other reasons why financial companies need to securely erase data:

Reduces the amount of information that is at risk if there is a cyber-attack.
Mitigates data breaches.
Assists with device Hygiene.
Promotes reuse of old devices – Data Erasure can permanently remove sensitive data and allow them to donate it to charitable organisations.

Due to the importance of data deletion, it’s important that financial firms follow proper data-wiping procedures. One of the most effective tools that can help them perform this process is BitRaser. It is a certified and tested software that can perform data-wiping on multiple drive types like SATA, PATA, SSD, NVMe, M.2, PCI, SAS, SCSI, IDE, USB, Mac devices (M1, M2 and T2) and Fibre Channel & FireWire.

The advantages of using BitRaser :

Certified & tested software from DHS and NIST
Complies to 24 Global standards like NIST 800-88 and DoD 5220.22-m
Permanent Data Erasure beyond the possibility of recovery
Automated Erasure Process with the ability to customize the erasure process.
Multiple drive wiping that can wipe up to 100 mounted drives simultaneously or erase up to 65000 drives over a network.
You can use the Bitraser offline variant or Bitraser Cloud feature to wipe drives
100% Tamper-Proof Certificates
Erasure reports for audit trails
Licenses never expire.
24/5 free technical support

The unique challenges faced by financial firms when choosing a secure data destruction solution are carefully considered by BitRaser. It has been designed to help make the process of data destruction more efficient and scalable.

For a demonstration of the Bitraser solution, contact us at 011 540 0325 or email sales@rad-tech.co.za