Be Sure to Wipe Your Memory Clean

Without a doubt, you have sensitive information stored on your personal computer, or in the memory of your printer, fax machine or copier. If you use these machines in your business, you probably also have other people's sensitive information as well.

When selling or disposing of such equipment (such as during an upgrade) be sure to totally wipe out all existing memory prior to letting the old equipment out of your possession. Information that is not completely wiped out can be easily retrieved by subsequent users and may not only be inconvenient or embarrassing, but more importantly, may violate your legal duty of confidentiality with regard to your customers, clients or patients. Also remember that simply hitting the "delete" button does not completely remove it from the memory a full reformatting of the hard drive is the only way to ensure complete removal.