Outdated Tech: A Gateway for Hackers

Technology is an integral part of business today. Without technology, our businesses would simply not be as effective and efficient as they are. This reliance on tech-based solutions for businesses has resulted in them maintaining huge reserves of tech on hand.

While we all know and recognize that technology can be useful if it’s simply abandoned, it can pose liabilities for any business once it fulfills its function. This is why tech recycling has become such an important industry over the past few decades.

Today we’ll talk about the dangers of outdated tech, specifically how it leaves companies vulnerable to hackers. In addition to this, we will also talk about CompuCycle’s excellent processes to recycle old electronics that keep your business secure.

Problems Associated with Outdated Tech

Outdated tech may not seem like a huge problem to most businesses, other than perhaps being an eyesore or taking up valuable space. Of course, those who work in security know all too well just how dangerous old tech, unattended or otherwise, can be.

Before we talk specifically about the security concerns that outdated tech can produce, let’s look at the general problems.

Increased Costs

Many businesses see little value in investing in up-to-date technology. They believe that if it’s not broken, why fix it? While this conventional wisdom may have paid off in other decisions, it can backfire regarding tech.

Ironically, outdated tech can become more costly than the amount of money it would take to replace it. This is because it is likelier to break down, causing data loss. Businesses then have to spend money to repair the issue and recover the lost data.

Lower Productivity

Outdated tech isn’t simply considered outdated because there are faster and newer machines out there. The world of technology evolves faster than any other industry. So not only are individual components constantly improving, the entire ecosystem is doing so as well.

This means that old tech can actually slow your operations down. If your tech is outdated, chances are your employees lose a lot of precious time simply waiting for the machine to do its job. While these may be minutes for each incident, the time quickly adds up. This also has a significant impact on your efficiency and competitiveness.

Outdated Tech as a Gateway for Hackers

There is a reason that technology experts recommend updating your equipment every few years. They’re not simply trying to upsell you the latest tech. There are serious security concerns with old tech. To understand what the issue here is, you need to understand how hackers achieve their goals.

Most of the time, hackers will look to exploit a vulnerability in the technology. Now the manufacturer knows this — no piece of tech is perfect after all. So it’s an endless game between the hacker and the producer.

The hacker discovers a vulnerability; the producer learns of this and attempts to patch it up. This process continues over the life of the equipment. Now, as we’ve already discussed, tech moves at an exceptionally quick pace.

As a result, producers cannot continue to provide the same level of security to all items in their product line. The latest version receives the best support with regular safety updates, while the oldest versions sometimes don’t even figure in as an afterthought.

This is why phasing out old tech is such an important part of the modern business environment. This process cannot be taken lightly because all your equipment contains some data related to your company. Even if you think you’ve erased all the data yourself, hackers can use sophisticated methods to extract this data.

As a result tech recycling has become an important part of the outdated tech handling process. Through technology recyclers like CompuCycle, you can ensure that all the data on your drives is wiped away using the best and most secure processes. We use the same principles as the Department of Defense so you can rest easy knowing that your data will never get into the wrong hands.

Hackers cannot gain access to your outdated tech when we’re on the job. We track your equipment from the moment we pick it up to the moment it is recycled. So contact us at CompuCycle and let us help you recycle old electronics.