WEEE Directive & ISO27001

Quality Matters has always considered data security as a prime requirement and security of client data is paramount.  To ensure that data security is achieved we use firewalls, anti virus and anti malware systems as well as encryption to Mil Standards and physical security measures.

Every time a  PC, Server or Laptop is retired the hard drives are removed and the residual hardware broken down and disposed of in accordance with the WEEE directive (WEEE is the Waste Electrical, Electronic Equipment Directive).

Recently we realised that we had quite a number of hard drives which had been removed from old equipment; these drives contain data, which could be recovered.  In the past we have wiped the data from disks and sometimes reformatted them.  We believed that this rendered the data unrecoverable. However we stopped doing this some years ago when it became apparent that forensic data recovery was possible even though we had carried out wiping and reformatting.

What should we do with the ever growing store of used hard drives?  

We are based in Maldon in Essex and happened to visit one of our Clients and found almost by accident a company that would deal with our drives in a failsafe manner.  

This company EOL IT Services (www.eolitservices.co.uk) based on the Baltic Wharf in Station Road Maldon has the answer.  Hard drives can be securely wiped or destroyed.  Destruction is totally secure as the hard drive is rendered into granules.  The granules are then recycled.

In addition this company will take away redundant IT equipment and pay any residual value; any non functional equipment is broken down and recycled.  EOL IT Services has a zero landfill policy and nothing is exported to third world for recovery of metals etc.

We were very pleased with the speed, efficiency and cost effectiveness shown by staff at this company.  We will use them again and have passed their details to some of our Clients.