Maxxum, USM-e Receive NAID Sanitization Certification

The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), the Phoenix-based trade association for the secure information destruction industry, has announced that Maxxum Inc., Rush City, Minn., and USM-e, Chicago, have been awarded NAID AAA certification for sanitization operations.

The two companies join Asset Recovery Corp., St. Paul, Minn.; EPC’s E-Scrap Processing Center, Earth City, Mo.; LifeSpan Technology Recycling, Denver; Supply-Chain Services Inc., Lombard, Ill.; and WeRecycle! LLC, Wallingford, Conn., which are also NAID AAA certified for sanitization operations.

 

NAID AAA certification for sanitization operations is a voluntary program available to the association’s members designed to verify the security and effectiveness of hard-drive sanitization services offered by information technology asset management firms.

NAID says it uses surprise and scheduled audits to confirm compliance with the certification’s required written procedures and the quality control regime of participating companies. Third-party forensic exams of control hard drives and hard drives randomly removed from the applicant’s processed inventory are designed to verify sanitization effectiveness. NAID’s 15 independent auditors are required to be certified protection professionals through ASIS International.

“While more people are familiar with NAID AAA certification for physical destruction, which is currently held at close to 800 secure disposition facilities, the data security certification for IT asset management firms is showing signs of similar momentum,” says NAID CEO Bob Johnson.

As of mid-February, six sanitization audits were pending, according to Johnson.

NAID currently represents more than 1,700 member-locations worldwide.