India spends $2 million annually destroying data storage devices: Study

Pune: A new research by Blancco Technology Group shows that Indian government and public sector organisations spend as much as $2 million annually on the physical destruction of solid-state drives (SSDs), a data storage device widely used both independently and within laptops, desktops, and servers. Further, replacement costs added another $3.5 million, bringing expenses up to $5.5 million for destroying public sector technology that is often still usable.

For Blancco’s study, The Price of Destruction: Exploring the Financial & Environmental Costs of Public Sector Device Sanitization, researchers spoke to 596 government IT leaders across nine countries including 70 in India. With global electronic waste (e-waste) called the ‘world’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream,’ the study also explores the environmental costs of physical destruction and the public sector’s current engagement with sustainable alternatives.

Despite 40% of Indian respondents agreeing that reuse of SSDs is better for the environment than physical destruction and almost all respondents (96%) saying their organization had defined plans to reduce the environmental impact caused by destroying IT equipment, only a quarter (26%) are actively implementing those plans.

Physical destruction of decommissioned drives is still mandated for security reasons, if they were used to store classified or secret data. For unclassified data-bearing assets, other data sanitization solutions are available.

Eighty-nine percent of Indian respondents said they reformat drives to sanitize them. This still leaves drives vulnerable during transport or storage, and much of the data can be recovered with forensics tools easily available online.

“The Indian government and public sector organizations are responsible for handling some of the most sensitive information in the world. But several factors, including accelerated digital transformation, rising numbers of public sector data breaches and global sustainability initiatives, are changing the data management landscape,” said Alan Bentley, President of Global Strategy, Blancco. “With growing environmental and funding pressures, there is a need for these public sector operations to be more sustainable and efficient while maintaining robust security.”

According to Blancco’s study of 70 public sector organizations, which represents 19% of central government/regional/local government organizations in India:

• 32% of respondents say physical destruction is mandated by law to physically destroy SSDs that contain classified data, so they destroy all SSDs “just in case.”
• 38% of respondents believe that physical destruction is cheaper than other sanitization solutions.
• 41% believe there is no certified or approved vendor or solution that provides another option for them, the highest of all the countries surveyed.
• While 42% of respondents stated that they physically destroy drives because it’s more secure than other data sanitization solutions, only 14% strongly agree that they have full confidence in their organization’s physical destruction process (41% slightly agree).

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