Community Waste

Shred and Recycle: Keeping Our Environment and Data Safe

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) and Campus Sustainability Month. The Information Security Office (ISO), Office of Sustainability, and Knight-Center Aramark have partnered to host an electronics recycling and confidential paper shredding event to raise awareness of security and data privacy, and to champion the sustainability movement within Washington University in St. Louis. This event will take place October 25, outside of The Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center and Bauer Hall on Snow Way Drive.

Confidential paper shredding and recycling electronics such as hard drives, are standard best practices used to reduce areas of vulnerability and data breaches within an organization. According to the WashU Chief Information Security Officer Kevin Hardcastle, “The Information Security and HIPPA Privacy Offices work with various regulatory requirements for the protection of personal identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). Hardcastle details, “Within those regulations are requirements to properly dispose paper and electronic equipment that may contain these types of information.”

The Information Security Office’s partnership with the Office of Sustainability serves as a bridge between cyber security and sustainability efforts. The Office of Sustainability’s mission is to be “fully committed to being a national leader in sustainability, a core priority that runs through all aspects of our community, our operations, and our work as a leading teaching and research institution.”

Recycling efforts, such as shredding documents containing sensitive information and properly destroying electronics, have not only proven to keep data and privacy safe, but also reduces energy consumption, saves water, and generates less air pollution, according to ShredIT.com.

This partnership is a first for the two offices but one that, if sustained, could produce a significant impact for the university.

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to bring hard drives, monitors, printers and paper to outside of The Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center and Bauer Hall on Snow Way Drive to be shredded and/or recycled securely and safely by certified vendors.

More details on this event can be found here.

For more information on other campus events for NCSAM, visit the website.