Cintas Introduces Hard Drive Destruction Service

The document management division of Cintas Corp., headquartered in Cincinnati, has added hard drive destruction to its available services. The new service is designed to destroy computer hard drives through a compliant recycling process, eliminating risks of data breaches and helping organizations stay compliant with state and federal disposal laws, Cintas says. 

 

“Many discarded hard drives contain information that is confidential and recoverable,” says Karen Carnahan, president and COO of Cintas Document Management. “Complete destruction is the best way to protect this sensitive business data. Our certified solution offers organizations the assurance that confidential files will not be exposed and they will remain compliant with data privacy standards.”

 

With the Cintas service, two service representatives who have undergone background checks collect the hard drives, scanning and logging each serial number at the time of service, the company says. The hard drives are physically destroyed on site in Cintas trucks using a specialized piece of equipment. All destroyed hard drives are collected in locked transportation bins, and a manifest of each destroyed hard drive is created, along with a Certificate of Destruction. Cintas says customers are invited to view their destroyed drives for additional peace of mind.

 

Edward Delamater, Cintas senior director of operations for the northern territory, says the company spent roughly one year researching the service. Initially, Cintas considered rolling out the service regionally but found it very expensive.

 

Rather than shred hard drives on site, Cintas worked with a company to develop a more cost-effective piece of equipment, Delamater says. This device acts like a guillotine, rendering the hard drives inaccessible. Cintas says it sends the destroyed hard drives to a recycling company.

Delamater adds, "We feel that we are protecting our customers in a cost-effective manner."