The massive transition to remote work since 2020 has allowed professionals and companies alike to realize the benefits of remote work and, as a result, companies are adopting hybrid and remote work models for the long-term. A Gallup survey in June of 2022 found that 8 in 10 people are working hybrid or remote, while only 2 in 10 are entirely on-site. And this trend continues for future predictions.

The survey also found this to be in line with the top factors professionals state they use to evaluate job opportunities where remote work was at top 84% to select factor to work for a company followed by salary which was less than remote work at 81%.

With the rise of remote work, the need for secure data management has become increasingly crucial. With this shift in work culture, the risk of data breaches has become a significant concern. Data sanitization through data deletion software is essential to ensure that sensitive information is securely erased when no longer needed.

At-Home Workforce Presents Data Security Risks

After Remote Work in trends due to Pandemic Since March of 2020, we’ve seen a significant number of enterprises migrate to an increasingly remote workforce. Eighty-eight percent of organizations worldwide made it mandatory or greatly encouraged their employees to work from home after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic & although over three-quarters of remote employees say they’re more productive while working from home, over half of all IT professionals think that remote workers present a greater security risk.

How expensive it can be if data not sanitized for remote users.

According to the Ponemon Institute and IBM Security's 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million. But that research was compiled before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In subsequent interviews, Ponemon and IBM found that 70% of the organizations that went remote expected breach costs to rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that 76% expected an increase in the time to identify and contain a breach. Simply having a remote workforce, Ponemon and IBM found, added nearly $137,000 to the cost of data breach resolution,

pushing the total cost to $4 million.

Provision of Data Erasure must be given in Remote Devices

Data security is the highest priority when enterprises are managing their IT assets remotely. Forty-two percent of employees that currently have a remote work option plan to work remotely more often in the next five years. Of those remote workers, nearly all would prefer to continue working from home to some extent, while nearly three-quarters of companies plan to make working remote permanent.

Remote Data Erasure Prevents Risk on In-Transit IT-Assets

Data security best practice is to properly sanitize all data-storage assets before they move from a more protected area to a less protected one, and that includes when devices like desktops and laptops are shipped or otherwise transported from an employee’s home to any other location. This ensures that confidential or personal information is completely erased from the device, then verified and certified, protecting that asset against a data breach and reinforcing compliance with data protection regulations.

How DiskDeleter works on Remote Devices to Data Erasure

Jungle recommends shipping the diskdeleter USB device containing the data erasure software to employee who need to ship the device back after use. This way employee can erasure himself/herself with help of remote administrator if needed. Once the data is erased, they can ship the erased device with the USB drive which can be used in another place.

Importance of Data erasure for disposed asset during remote working.

One of the most common ways hackers gain access to sensitive information is through disposed IT devices and electronic waste. Specialized data erasure software can completely wipe a drive and prevent recovery by even the most sophisticated criminals. However, End-of-life data, IT assets, and discarded e-waste must be securely sanitized before they are dispelled. If device needs to be disposed, then also similar remote erasure method which is defined previously can be utilized.

Conclusion

Data disposal has always been important, but it has taken on new urgency in the post-Covid era. With more and more businesses moving online, the need to protect sensitive data in the new normal is greater than ever. As a result, businesses must become agile in adopting and updating data disposal policies or face impending challenges.

In a nutshell, remote workforce and hybrid work culture have made data ever-vulnerable, and robust security measures like data disposal of end-of-life IT assets have become imminent.