[August 18, 2004] ADDING and REPLACING: Corporate Liability for Disposing of Old Computers Boosting WindsorTech's Revenues and Earnings HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 18, 2004 -- Add after last graph of release: Statements about WTI's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. WTI intends that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and WTI's actual results could differ materially from expected results. WTI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances. The corrected release reads: CORPORATE LIABILITY FOR DISPOSING OF OLD COMPUTERS BOOSTING WINDSORTECH'S REVENUES AND EARNINGS eraseyourharddrive.com Helps Small Business/Consumers Avoid Identity Theft Security and environmental concerns, backed up by increased regulations, are changing the way companies handle the resale and disposal of their old computers and other IT assets, according to Marc Sherman, chairman and CEO of WindsorTech, Inc. (OTCBB: WSRT), a newly public data security and environmental compliance services company. "Corporations are increasingly aware that they are liable for remarketed computer and mainframe hard drives that hold sensitive data, ranging from patents to proprietary business records, to customer and consumer account information, and, in the case of healthcare providers, to patient records that are confidential by law," he said. "You can no longer just say I want to scrap this computer or send it to a recycling facility without documentation that the hard drive has been properly sanitized or that the disposal meets EPA standards," Mr. Sherman added. Legislation including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) as well as the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act protects consumers by enforcing the confidentiality of medical as well as financial records. The responsibility for confidentiality does not expire with the retirement of IT assets whose hard drive may hold such information. "Just as organizations retain outside auditors to assure that their financial records meet appropriate accounting standards, organizations retain us to guarantee that the disposal of their IT assets meets government regulations for this type of equipment," Mr. Sherman added. "In fact, we have raised the bar for the resale industry: We will not take IT assets for resale unless hard-drive erasure is part of the work or we are fully indemnified, with the job having been done internally, so that we don't take on the end users' risk." Companies can be held culpable and fined if their data falls into the wrong hands and misused when they resell, donate or otherwise dispose of their IT equipment, without first sanitizing the information on their hard drives, as well as for trashing old machines without complying with environmental regulations. Many states and the EPA impose fines for improperly disposing of IT equipment, which contains a number of toxins including lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury. EPA fines can mount to millions of dollars for the violation of its disposal regulations. WindsorTech is experiencing increased demand for its services from both corporations and government agencies due to increased liability exposure from improperly retired end-of-life IT equipment. Total revenue for WindsorTech's second quarter increased 167 percent to $4.9 million, compared to $1.8 million for the same period in 2003. The obsolescence cycle of computers provides a substantial market for resellers like WindsorTech, which presently can audit and recycle tens of thousands of units a month at its Hightstown and Eagan, Minnesota, facilities. "That's a drop in the bucket compared with an estimated 100 million corporate and personal computers coming out of primary service by 2007," Mr. Sherman said. Turnkey Package The company offers corporations highly customized and turnkey packages for their end-of-life IT assets, including data erasure, system audits and asset tracking, which are now mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to increase corporate accountability, and it helps companies remarket their IT machinery so that they almost always collect a residual fee for their old machines. In keeping with EPA regulations, the company recycles almost all salvageable parts from notebooks to mainframes, providing clients with a complete audit report regarding the function, condition, configuration and fair market value of their assets. With a client's approval, the machines are then re-marketed as complete units to a primarily international market place or broken down into parts to be re-marketed here and abroad. The erasure is performed in keeping with Defense Department standards, applying three consecutive wipes over the data with a series of X's and O's. Clients are issued a "certificate of disposition," verifying that they have properly disposed of their IT equipment. eraseyourharddrive.com Many small companies and consumers are unaware that simply deleting files or even reformatting a hard drive to prevent data and identity theft does not erase the information encoded on the drives. To cope with this problem, WindsorTech has developed software that can be downloaded from the Web for $23.95. eraseyourharddrive.com uses the same technology employed by the Department of Defense and the National Security Administration to safeguard the country's most secure data to wipe a computer's hard drive clean before it is resold or dumped, permanently eliminating all data, including social security, bank and credit card numbers, as well as password, login and other sensitive codes. About WindsorTech, Inc. WindsorTech, Inc. is a Data Security and Environmental Compliance Service company offering data security/erasure, environmental compliance, IT asset management consulting, and remarketing services to corporate, public and academic customers. The company is a Provider Member of IAITAM (International Association of IT Asset Managers) and holds a seat on their panel of Expert Speakers. For more information, visit our website at www.windsortechinc.com. Statements about WTI's future expectations, including future revenues and earnings, and all other statements in this press release other than historical facts are 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. WTI intends that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and WTI's actual results could differ materially from expected results. WTI undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequently occurring events or circumstances. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]