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Developing A Document Shredding Strategy For Your Business

A comprehensive document destruction policy is an important part of any business, small or large. Protecting customer and employee data is not only common sense, but is also legislated.
Here are a few tips and resources to make the process easier.

Keywords:

document shredding, document destruction, paper shredding

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Creating a document shredding strategy is an important aspect of almost every business. Not only are there lots and regulations that require businesses to shred documents, but it is also part of running a trustworthy, excellent business.

Why do business is need to destroy documents?

Practically every business is creating and managing new paper documents every day and the list of documents that legally need to be shredded is constantly growing.

Bills, customer order information, contracts, employee applications, in-house memos, receipts, piles of mail, insurance documents, old tax records, payment records, account records and balance sheets, personnel files and bank records… Practically any document that has a first name last name address, and other information probably needs to be shredded.

What can happen if this information falls into the wrong hands?

Well, aside from forgery, credit card fraud, con schemes, corporate espionage, there is of course the potential for bad publicity, loss of customers, lawsuits and fines.

It is important that all businesses shred or destroy certain sensitive documents. Law enforcement, legal industries, government agencies, banks, health care providers, insurance providers, financial brokers, and real estate are just a few industries where managing paperwork is crucial. Not to mention hospitals, insurers, doctor’s offices, retirement homes, drugstores, legal papers.

So how can a business manage their documents safely and effectively?

A detailed security policy for every type of document your business uses is essential and employees need to know these policies!

For example: What are the shredding requirements for the various document types that your company frequently uses? What are employees allowed to photocopy? Who has access to files with private information?

Signs can be posted in the workplace and next to trash cans and recycling bins were sensitive documents may inadvertently be thrown out, un-shredded.

Also, whoever is overseeing the destruction of documents should closely consult with the company’s IT staff and any other department that works with electronic records and files to ensure safe handling.

Training employees about disposing of sensitive documents and developing a very specific policy about how long to hold and went to discard documents will go a long way. Access to company read records should be controlled and restricted to a small number of individuals and there should be rules relating to records.

And finally, use a certified document destruction company that has a good track record.

For a more information about safe document disposal and list of document shredding services including mobile document shredding services, you can browse our services directory.

Document Shredding And Document Security: Protecting Your Vital Information

Keywords:

document shredders, paper shredders, paper shredding, document shredding, document protection

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Document security and document shredding have never been more important before and are bound to impact our lives in a way that we just can’t imagine. If you see a proliferation of caro document shredding or Davison document shredding, or even curtis document shredding, you are witnessing the new wave of privacy protection.

Document shredding, document security and what they mean to us is symptomatic of the world we occupy. The times that we live in today are new, wonderful and enchanting times where technology and a more evolved intellect ensure that the outmoded lifestyles of the past are but just a legacy remaining in the inner recesses of some of our minds. Information today is absolute power and the keeper of this Holy Grail remains strongeth for ever. That’s precisely why document shredding and document security have not only just rose in prominence but have advanced to a sophistication level that makes caro document shredding or Davison document shredding or even curtis document shredding look like the run-of-the-mill shredding technique.

The reason why document shredding is important is because your identity is not just yours. Not unless you protect it. A glance of your newspaper over the past few months and you would stumble upon innumerable cases of identity thefts, of loss of property and money, and in some cases a loss of life as well. And the victims became the victims not because they were ignorant of caro document shredding or Davison document shredding but because they did not fully appreciate the need to protect sensitive information either about themselves or their business entity. Information in the wrong hands is like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. At that point in time it stops becoming a question of ‘if it will happen’ and starts becoming a question of ‘when it will happen’.

Your personal documents therefore are more important to others than they are to you, just a little bit of malicious intent and you could be facing a financial loss or legal suit slapped against you because some one did something they were not supposed to in your name. Document security therefore becomes important and ipso facto so does document shredding. And with it, the growing practices of curtis document shredding, caro document shredding and Davison document shredding among others. Of course, you don’t have to own a paper shredder to do document shredding. There are several shredding agencies who for a very nominal fee, come in a truck with a high power paper shredder installed in the truck right up to your doorstep, and shred your documents in no time right in front of you. What more could you possible want?

Thus it makes tremendous business sense to take good care of your personal documents, your sensitive information and any similar information of your business as well. Tearing up sheets of paper is a small price to pay for insuring yourself against any fraudulent activities that could be committed in your name. Feel free to explore more of justpapershredders.com to get an insider view on the world of document shredding and paper shredders.

Document Shredding: ‘Destroying’ The Things That You ‘Value’

Keywords:

document shredding,document shredder

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What do the following industries have in common?

Law enforcement
Legal industries
Government
Banking
Health care
Financial service (brokerage)
Entertainment
Technology
Manufacturing industries

The answer: The above-mentioned industries regard information as a very important aspect of their operations. They are information-sensitive – they have a need to ensure that important and confidential data are secured and protected at all times.

What data are considered classified? Some are listed below:

Disbursement records (Wages, etc.)
Accounts records (financial statements such as the balance sheet, etc.)
Sales receipts
Bank records
Social Security records
Business letters
Customer information
Personnel records
Computer printouts
Computer discs or tapes

Why is there a need to protect such data? Industries are in constant danger of having such sensitive information to ‘fall into the wrong hands’ – people that are out to inflict damage, such as a discontented employee or a competitor, which could result to either of the following:

Bad publicity
Humiliation
Loss of staff or key personnel (probably to a competitor)
Loss of customers
Loss of job or running out of business
A possible indictment

This is why every information-sensitive industry needs a proper and secure records storage and management. However, such course of action usually requires much room (think of all those years’ worth of papers and electronic tapes piling up); it also incurs high costs. In addition, there will also come a time when the company will need to purge itself of the age-old materials. But these outdated materials will still be sensitive, and throwing away classified documents in a wastebasket will not do the trick – they can still be collected and sorted out, the information still made available to whoever would want them.

There is a truly a great need for a secure disposal of sensitive data, and an effective solution to this crucial aspect of an industry is document shredding.

Document shredding is a safe and secure option for discarding restricted documents and materials. In document shredding, sensitive files and records are destroyed, turning them into bits that can no longer be recognized; thereby ensuring that confidentiality is maintained.

The document shredding process is entirely flexible that it can adapt to any industry’s distinct requirements in destroying sensitive records. Depending on what would suit it’s needs, a company can either purchase it’s own document shredder or employ outsourced document shredding services, who can then perform the document shredding process on-site or off-site.

On-site document shredding provides industries with the opportunity to observe the actual shredding of their materials ‘on site’, right at their doorsteps. The use of mobile shredding vehicles and equipment will especially fit those who do not want their records to leave their site intact.

In an off-site document shredding, the document-shredding company collects the materials in security containers and hauls them in a safe location that may be monitored by security cameras where they are destroyed into little pieces. Aside from the surveillance cameras, industries can also send representatives to personally observe the actual document shredding process.

Once the classified records are destroyed in a proper and secure manner, the document shredding company will then provide its client with a “Certificate of Destruction,” which notes the date and time as well as the accounting of the materials shredded. This not only serves as a proof that the documents were destroyed properly; it also gives the client the necessary data for an audit trail.

There are many advantages in making use of the services of an outside document shredding company:

A document shredding service enables the company to save thousands of dollars by not having to buy a document shredding equipment and not having to worry of the depreciation as well as the maintenance costs.

A document shredding service also enables the company to save in terms of labor. Employees would not need to spend hours to do the document shredding. Employees can spend the time more effectively by doing their own jobs.

A document shredding company also helps the environment by recycling. Recycling is the final step in almost all the document shredding process. The shredded materials are collected and, through baling and/or pulping, can be used again to form other items such as boxes and copier papers, among others.

We cannot deny that protecting the interests of a company remains a crucial phase of every business, especially in this age of information. And with document shredding, we are not only securing an industry’s information, we are also helping the environment – a win-win solution.

Document Security – Not Just Paper Shredding

Keywords:

document security, paper shredding, document destruction, shredit, shred-it, identity theft

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What is document security? Why is document security important to me? What are the best methods my company can use to enhance document security? Is it expensive to do? These are some of the questions you may have about document security.

In this article, I will explain more about document security and why it is important that your business implement some sort of policy or plan to improve the way your employees and you handle documents.

Almost every business has documents that they have to process on a daily basis. Contracts, Invoices, Receipts, Purchase Orders, In-house Memos, and documents related to sensitive information are some of the examples of documents you may use.

Document security includes how those documents are stored, backed up, processed, delivered, and disposed of. First we will talk about storage and backup of your documents. This involves a lot more than just which type of filing cabinet you want to buy.

Even in this electronic age, paper documents are a necessity. The storage of these documents safely and securely is often ignored. For sensitive documents, you do need locked file cabinets. You need to be aware of who in your company will have keys to those file cabinets and they need to be stored in a secure location. Fireproof filing cabinets are also a good idea.

This might seem to be inconvenient, expensive, and time-consuming, but the loss of your documents is going to cost you a lot more time and money than having security in place for them.

Transferring all of your documents into electronic format is essential to document security. Either through data entry or through scanning of documents you can back them up in electronic format to help ensure their safety and recovery if you lose all the paper.

Many of your documents today are already in electronic format. Those and the electronic backups of the paper documents you make also need to be backed up besides just on your computer. There are electronic data storage services you can use online that will give you storage space on secure servers.

Some of these can be relatively inexpensive, others charge too much. I suggest you research several of them to find the solution that is right for you. You can burn those documents to CD, but then must find a secure way, off of your business premises to store those CDs.

You can store the data on other computers you have at home or elsewhere, but need to keep in mind who might be able to access them. The companies that provide secure storage for electronic documents and data are usually a much more secure method.

You need to implement a specific security policy in regards to every type of document your company uses. Your employees need to follow these specific document security guidelines at all times.

Document and data delivery is also an important consideration. Do you use encrypted email when sending and receiving documents? Do you require a receipt from the receiver of your emails to show they have gotten the data you sent them? These are easy to implement. PGP for email is one of the best methods. Do a search for PGP and you will find more information about it.

When you mail sensitive documents, do you use registered mail? Do you insure it? These are important pieces to your document security policy. Your employees should know which specific types of outgoing mail are to receive special attention.

Who opens the mail your company receives? Is it ever left out in the open where just anyone can pick it up? Your employees should be aware that document security extends to incoming mail as well. There needs to be specific instructions as to what happens to all incoming mail.

Now we can move on to document disposal. Do you have an office shredder? You may want to have one in each employee’s work area who might be handling or creating sensitive company documents. Have a policy of shredding the documents they throw away. Better to be safe than sorry. Thieves and others will go through your trash to find any information they can use to their advantage.

If you have a lot of sensitive documents or wish to be more careful, there are services that come to your office to shred and destroy documents then remove them to be incinerated. These companies guarantee the safe disposal of your documents.

I hope this article has helped answer any questions you may have had about document security. I further hope that it has made you aware of the need for you to have a document security policy at your business.

Data Shredding Basics: Is Smaller Really Better?

Electronic data storage has become a standard due to the incredibly small space that electronic files physically occupy when compared to paper documents. However, this comes with its price: Electronic data is harder to erase, frequently misplaced, and often easy to steal. In this article we will cover some common misconceptions about how files are deleted and give you an idea of what to do to really shred electronic data.

Keywords:

data wiping, document shredding, data shredding, data erasing

Article Body:

Just as businesses need to destroy sensitive data, so too is there a need to shred electronic data from computer drives.

With increases in technology, it is simply amazing how much data can be stored in such a small physical space, and how often that data is recoverable if only erased using standard methods.
For computers, the equivalent of shredding is called wiping. If data is wiped from a computer it means that cannot be restored by any means.

Data wiping can be accomplished by using software which overwrites files or by using a 'secure delete' command instead of the 'regular delete' command to the operating system.

Why doesn't just deleting a document or file doesn’t work?

On many computers and the many standard operating systems, simply deleting a file and sending it to the trash bin will not delete the contents of the file it all! It may show that new space is available on the disk and it may show the file as removed from the operating system index, when in fact only the reference to the document was removed well actual contents remain somewhere on the hard disk.

In fact, the file has only become 'dispensable' space and may or may not be overwritten by other newer files. This allows for easy recovery of recently deleted files with various software tools or MS DOS commands.

Sometimes the files may be overwritten or partially overwritten and become unrecoverable, but there may still be traces, and with the right equipment and knowledge, much of this data can be mined from the hard disk.

The Unix operating system has a built in delete command which can be used, and there are various files deleting programs available for windows systems which overwrite the data repeatedly with random binary code making recovery extremely difficult. It intersperses random binary into the files and makes it so random that it is like it is deleted. This is sort of the computer equivalent of shredding paper materials.

One not of caution when using data shredders: It can be possible that after files have been deleted the files may move location. This may happen if the disk has been 'defragmented' and in some cases, may render shredding software ineffective because it doesn’t know where to locate the specific data to be overwritten.

Thus, many people say that really the only absolute ways to permanently get rid of data on the hard drive is the burn it, pour acid on it, or a degausser!

Disc encryption is another method available to increase the security of your data. There’s a program called PGP which can encrypt data before it is stored on a hard disk. The PGP or “Pretty Good Privacy” is an encryption program for cryptographic privacy and authentication. It’s pretty close to military grade encryption and can be used to protect data in long-term storage such as disk files. It requires a pass phrase to recover encrypted information

Other Data Storage Devices To Wipe:

Another device to look out for is flash memory devices, such as key ring size USB drives and memory cards. Data stored on these devices can often be recovered even after it has been erased. As of the time of this article there is no official method for destroying these devices. Overwriting may help, but pulverizing the storage is probably the safest option.

Due to the small size of these devices they are extremely easy to misplace drop or forget about… They are also easy to steal or smuggle. In Iraq hundreds and hundreds of these devices were stolen which contained sensitive data about US troops! It is thought that these were smuggled out in the pockets of Iraqi locals working and sold on the black market.

Care must be taken with these devices.

While electronic data storage has become increasingly popular due to the minute space electronic files physically occupy compared to paper, people should realize that the extremely small size comes with a price: They are hard to keep track of! Sometimes, smaller is not better. Electronic data can be harder to permanently erase, easier to misplace, and easier to steal.

Visit our website for more information about document shredding services.