Opinion: The Sims Leadership Changes Point to a Broader Generational Shift Across the ITAD Industry

Sims Limited’s executive leadership changes this week may be evidence of a generational transition surfacing across the industry regardless of ownership model, as the leaders who built ITAD over the past two decades begin handing off to whoever comes next.

IBM’s 2025 Breach Data Puts ITAD Providers Inside the Vendor-Risk Perimeter

The global average breach cost at $4.44 million, according to IBM. Healthcare leads all industries at $7.42 million, followed by financial services at $5.56 million, industrial at $5.00 million, energy at $4.83 million, and technology at $4.79 million. Supply-chain compromise, where ITAD sists, ranks as the second-costliest attack vector at $4.91 million per incident, trailing only malicious insider incidents at $4.92 million. Phishing averages $4.80 million and stolen credentials $4.67 million. For ITAD providers, the supply-chain figure is the number that matters. Enterprise procurement teams now treat disposition vendors as part of the same risk perimeter as any other third party with access to sensitive data. Governance maturity, documentation quality, and audit readiness are becoming primary evaluation criteria, alongside processing capacity and recovery rates. Providers serving healthcare and financial services face buyers with the highest breach-cost exposure and the strongest incentive to demand governance-mature partners.