We've all been there- a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet has finally reached the end of its useful life, and then comes the dilemma of what to do with it. After all, there's almost always going to be some sensitive data – or perhaps the occasional inappropriate download – on there that you don't want winding up into the wrong hands, so the idea of simply throwing it into the garbage is not an option.
Simply wiping a hard drive or, more crudely, smashing it with a hammer is far from ideal and could still result in your personal data winding up in the wrong hands. And if you're a major company, this problem is amplified exponentially; instead of an old laptop or two to get rid of, there literally could be dozens or hundreds, all of which containing information you don't want on the open market.
That's where Pupfish Sustainability Solutions comes in. Based in Hauppauge, New York, Pupfish specializes in large-scale data destruction, ensuring that it never falls into the hands of threat actors and miscreants who might use it for nefarious purposes.
Pupfish first opened their doors for business in October of 2020, right in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic; while perhaps not the most ideal time to start a business, Pupfish President David Faverio nonetheless felt that it was important to get the project off the ground sooner rather than later.
In today's increasingly digital world, the proper handling and disposal of electronic data is absolutely vital. However, that growing need wasn't David's sole motivation for opening Pupfish. He was also driven by more socially-conscious aspirations.
“We named it Pupfish Sustainability Solutions because our concern was the environment. We're all Long Island people – we all grew up here – and we're concerned about Long island's environment,” he said. “While data destruction is a huge portion of what we do, we also do electronics recycling. We basically recycle 100 percent of everything that we receive, so there is no waste involved. We have a zero-landfill policy, and we try to repurpose what we can and what we can't repurpose, we recycle. And everything we process goes right back into the U.S. manufacturing stream; nothing is sent overseas.”
If improperly disposed of, electronic devices can be responsible for releasing a great many toxins into the surrounding environment. David said that, according to statistics, two percent of landfill items are composed of electronics, but these items are responsible for 70 percent of the toxins coming from their respective landfills. And while electronics are 100 percent recyclable, David said that the United States sadly only recycles a meager 15 percent.
“We have all these solid waste issues, all of these landfill issues, and it's important for Pupfish to put these things back into the manufacturing stream and not only help our local businesses, but the environment as well,” he said.
What Pupfish does is work with companies on Long Island – although for certain jobs, they have ventured outside the confines of the island, and occasionally outside of New York State itself – and they will pick up any electronic device for recycling; if it has data on it, they make sure they utterly destroy it.
“We handle things like hard drives, laptops, computers, cell phones, tablets...basically anything that you can think of that has data,” he said. “However, we can also remove data from things such as a network switch, because that can have information about your company's IP settings. Cell phones and desk phones contain your entire call history, and that's personal, private information. We'll take them apart and shred the boards because we want to make sure that data is destroyed.”
“Printers are a huge factor as well,” David continued. “Larger floor-type printers almost always have a hard drive in them, and most people don't know about that. There are people out there buying off-lease printers from law firms and banks and they get copies of every copy or scan that they ever made. Every transaction is right there on the printer's hard drive. So, when we pick up printers, we make sure there's no hard drive in it, and if there is we make sure that data is gone.”
Other places where unexpected data is turning up, David noted, are in Apple MacBook All-in-One computers; in addition to the main hard drive, there are often secondary hard drives on the other side of the motherboard - tucked securely out of sight - that the owners of these computers may be completely oblivious to. Even if the user pulls the main hard drive before throwing the computer out, there are people out there that will get at that secondary hard drive and the sensitive data within.
Pupfish mainly deals with data destruction on a large scale, primarily working with companies and corporations; however, they also engage in regular community outreach efforts as well, working with local companies and Longwood Public Library in Middle Island, holding events where they will collect and destroy devices brought in by people for free.
As a corporation certified by the National Association of Information Destruction (NAID), complete transparency is also a huge part of Pupfish's business model; everything is documented, including what comes in, where it came from, what they did to it, and what the final solution in terms of disposing of the data was. No stone is left unturned when it comes to chronicling every aspect of the data they take in and destroy, something David said he takes a lot of pride in, to the point of even allowing the company's clients to come in and observe the process from beginning to end, if they so choose. Or, conversely, Pupfish can come to your company and destroy the data on-site instead.
And when it comes to the actual destruction of the data in question, Pupfish are masters of their trade; some devices can be completely sanitized with software and subsequently reused, whereas others need to be physically destroyed, either by shredding or a process known as degaussing, which demagnetizes the drive, rendering it completely inert.
David also proclaims that Pupfish employees will never, under any circumstances, look at the actual data contained on the devices they are destroying; when you go with Pupfish, you can rest assured that your private data will remain just that – private – and will no longer exist in any form whatsoever once their experts have diligently plied their trade.
“Data never leaves our facility, not even in a tiny fragment,” David said.
To find out more about Pupfish and the important services they offer, please call 631-403-1100, visit their official website at https://www.pupfishusa.com, email info@pupfishUSA.com, or check out their social media pages listed below.
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pupfish-sustainability-solutions-inc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pupfishusa/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PupfishUSA/