Cintas Launches Hard Drive Destruction Program in Michigan

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Cintas Corp., a Cincinnati, Ohio-based firm that provides specialized services to businesses including document management, has launched a hard drive destruction program to enhance security for companies in Michigan from its office in Plymouth Township.

“We’re really seeing every industry participate (in the service). Everyone is bound by some sort of law or regulation and has to ensure their data is protected and ultimately destroyed,” says Todd Wolfe, a regional business director for Cintas Document Management.

“Many discarded hard drives contain information that is confidential and recoverable,” said Patrick Day, general manager of Cintas Document Management in Plymouth.

About 9 million documents on average can be stored on a 40-gigabyte drive, which is a common size, Wolfe says. “If the one (file) that needs to be destroyed ends up in the wrong hands, it could be devastating,” he says.

Wolfe says if businesses can face hash penalties if they don’t protect their data. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, for example, the government can fine violators up to $1.5 million, while each criminal sentence can mean up to 10 years in prison. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, meanwhile, allows the government to issue fines of up to $100,000 per violation for financial institutions.

As part of Cintas’ data destruction program, the company sends two experts to a client’s location, where they will destroy the hard-drive on site. Afterward, the client is given a manifest log, providing documentation of what was destroyed.

For more information about the program, click here.