I know what you're thinking...enough with the emails! But this post is not meant to be a political statement, it is simply meant to show you just what the unclaimed electronics in your lost and found may contain.
Imagine if one of Secretary Clinton's devices were lost on your property. Would your policies have made sure they were wiped of all data? According to one article on the subject, "if Clinton’s old smartphones were lost, the information in her emails would be accessible to whoever had found them or obtained them by other means." Disposing of those lost devices without making sure they were properly data wiped would, in essence, be a breach of national security.
The last sentence of that quote makes an interesting statement; "found them or obtained them by other means." "Other means" of obtaining lost devices could be through an auction, or maybe by returning them to the employees who found them, or even by purchasing them from the charity to whom you donated.
The point is that you never really know what is stored on the unclaimed devices left behind guests. This really underscores the need to be diligent in making sure your disposal method properly addresses data security.
What if you have Data Breach or Cyber Insurance? Will it cover this kind of breach? That will be covered in a future post.