IT asset disposition (ITAD) is the secure handling, reuse, resale, and destruction of retired technology assets such as laptops, servers, drives, and backup media. The goal is to remove data safely while preserving any value that can be recovered from the hardware.
ITAD matters because retired equipment often still contains sensitive credentials, customer data, government records, or encryption keys. In cyber security, the process is a major trust boundary: weak chain of custody, poor media wiping, or incomplete destruction can expose organizations to data theft, compliance violations, and downstream breaches. Attackers may target ITAD providers because they concentrate valuable assets and information. Defenders reduce risk with documented custody tracking, verified sanitization, tamper-evident transport, access controls, and certified destruction methods for drives and other storage media.