Does your organization provide secure methods for destroying paper documents, storage media, and other physical forms of data storage?

Proper data destruction methods prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information that may remain on physical media after disposal. Organizations should have documented procedures for securely destroying different types of media including paper shredding, hard drive degaussing or physical destruction, and secure disposal of removable media like USB drives or backup tapes. Evidence could include a data destruction policy document, contracts with certified data destruction vendors, photographs of on-site destruction equipment (such as cross-cut shredders or hard drive destroyers), or certificates of destruction from third-party services.