From fun social media photos of kids sporting their first day of school outfits to long lines of busses back on the roads – it is hard to ignore the inevitable end of summer and start of the school year. Just as iconic ‘back to school’ images have largely transitioned from hard copies to electronic formats over the years, so too has much of the academic experience. This accelerated digital migration poses new challenges surrounding data privacy for both students and school faculty. As such, academic institutions are embracing modern data management and disposal techniques, like hard drive shredding, in place of traditional physical storage in lockers and paper shredding.

Even with the return to in-person classes this fall, school computers and other electronic devices have remained essential tools for communication between pupils and instructors, research, studying and more. While this technology has greatly enhanced the education experience for both learners and teachers, its proliferation also presents a significant risk for academic institutions. Student and faculty data stored on obsolete, unused and otherwise unwanted technology left lying around or improperly disposed of often results in data breaches that can be damaging to schools’ reputations and finances as well as campus safety.

Hard drive shredding is one of the most effective ways to ensure the data on your devices is gone for good. Did you know that most computer files can still be accessed after you’ve deleted them? Until you rewrite the storage space they once occupied, old files could still be accessible. If you want to safeguard sensitive information at your K-12 school, college, university or any other academic institution, you should consider incorporating hard drive shredding into your overall approach to digital security. This technique adds an additional layer of protection when combined with other methods like systematic data wiping and physical degaussing.

At PC Survivors, we help those in field of academics as well as a variety of other closely regulated industries protect themselves and maintain regulatory compliance with personalized hard drive shredding solutions. Our best practice techniques meet and often exceed the guidelines outlined by Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA), Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all other forms of applicable state, federal and international legislation.

We can transport your hard drives on GPS enabled vehicles to our Hanover, Massachusetts facility for secure processing. If you prefer, we can even bring our mobile shredders to your campus and perform our service under your direct supervision. Whichever method you choose, you will receive a detailed certificate of destruction. This document can contain complete video recordings of the process, serialized item logs and more. You can find additional peace of mind in the knowledge that your processed materials will be disposed of in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Don’t wait for Thanksgiving break to take care of old computers and other pieces of technology that are taking up space in your school’s labs, library or classrooms. The longer these devices are left to collect dust, the more opportunities technologically inclined criminals, mischievous students and other unauthorized users will have to access and exploit your data. Our hard drive shredding service will allow you and your class to dedicate their focus to the content of your curriculum instead of the content left on outdated devices.