Data security breaches in the educational sector can be devastating to institutions and the students and employees they serve. They carry the potential for identity theft, violations of federal and state laws, and loss of trust of students, alumni and employees. The Identity Theft Resource Center says that as of October 2011, education institutions in 2011 had experienced 47 breaches that affected 618,216 records. To combat the problem, education administrators have dedicated substantial resources to ensure their IT equipment is protected against hacker attacks, malware intrusions and phishing. Discarded electronics are vulnerable to thieves, who want to extract valuable student and staff data. In this article, the author discusses how to protect student and employee information stored on discarded electronics.