Hard drive shredding

Many e-scrap firms that shred material or engage in other forms of data destruction are NAID AAA Certified. | Huguette Roe/Shutterstock

An industry association has made changes designed to ensure that data destruction customers don’t confuse “NAID member” to mean “NAID AAA Certified.”

The International Secure Information Governance & Management Association (i-SIGMA), which was created by the 2018 merger of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) and the Professional Records and Information Services Management (PRISM), includes member companies that are NAID AAA certified and others that are not.

According to a Jan. 13 press release, non-certified members will no longer be able to use the “NAID Member” logo and claims; instead, they’ll have to refer to themselves as “i-SIGMA Members” and use the corresponding logo.

But those members that have completed necessary certification audits can still refer to themselves as “NAID AAA Certified” and use the associated logo. And members that are certified to the PRISM Privacy+ standards can still use that program’s logo.

The changes could mean marketing material tweaks for a lot of companies. According to NAID’s database, there are nearly 2,500 i-SIGMA members around the world. Of those, over 1,000 are NAID AAA Certified. And of those, about 750 are certified for hard drive destruction, 90 for hard drive overwriting, 30 for hard drive degaussing and 90 for solid-state drive overwriting.

“With the NAID and PRISM International designations limited to the i-SIGMA Certification Programs, it will retain the strength of those brands without diluting the names with market confusion over companies which are or are not certified, Bob Johnson, i-SIGMA’s CEO, stated in the press release. “This will create greater clarity in the marketplace and allow all members to still receive the full benefits and backing of their trade association.”

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