If you’ve not yet considered on-site shredding for your business, there are a range of benefits to it that a growing number of companies are now taking advantage of. There are the obvious things such as data protection that benefit from on-site shredding services. Here are some considerations to make when choosing the right solution for your business:
The majority of companies shred their confidential documents as part of their security policy, but do you really know what the process involves, or where it has come from? Here are 5 paper shredding facts that you need to know:
The first ever shredder was invented in 1909, by Abbot Augustus Low. He patented the idea, however the device was not refined enough to ever be mass-produced. After this, the paper shredder idea was taken and modified by Adolf Ehinger in 2935.
In a world where digitisation is growing and the use of paper is widely declining for many business processes, data is being stored more on hardware such as hard drives, CDs, and DVDs, as well as USB memory sticks or even in specific industries things like X-Rays. All of these media can hold confidential information, that is vital to your business or private information belonging to customers and contacts.
On-site shredding has quickly become an obvious choice for removing your confidential waste and data. Companies need to be concerned with the protection of sensitive financial documents and client lists, but also there are legal considerations that take priority as well. Privacy laws including HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FACTA (the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act) hold businesses responsible for protecting customer/consumer information. There are two types of shredding services – on-site and off-site.
Businesses are realising that professional shredding companies offer a range of advantages such as security, environmentally friendly disposal and compliance with the Data Protection Act. So, here are some of the great benefits of using a professional paper shredding company could bring to your business.
Believe it or not, messy desks can be a cause of a huge data protection issue within many companies. A clean desk policy can prevent these issues and encourage your employees to be more responsible and diligent during the document destruction process.
It is no longer adequate to simply throw away documents containing confidential information after use. Fraud and identity theft are just two well-known risks of private data being compromised by criminals, and businesses are putting their customers’ personal data at risk if they fail to dispose of it securely and sufficiently that it cannot be pieced back together. From the initial acquisition of data, throughout its lifecycle of use, to the end disposal, it’s important to maintain complete security at all times.
Despite the move towards paperless working, information is still being stored on physical media. This hardware includes media such as hard drives, USB Memory sticks, SIM cards, X-Rays, Video or Cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, and Microfishe and Floppy Disks. All of these things can contain sensitive information that now needs to be disposed of.
Paper shredding is already an instrumental part of many businesses as an element of their secure destruction and privacy policy. However, this can leave a large volume of shredded material to be disposed of. On-site shredding providers not only provide secure document destruction, but also recycle the shredded material following the shredding process.
Many people always ask me why they should shred their paper waste on-site in preference to having a company taking it away to dispose of it off-site. The answer is quite simple. The main reason for shredding on-site is for the security of your confidential documents.
