Protect Your Business Documents and Prevent Identity Theft

Information is power. However, that information can damage your company’s privacy and even the business itself. It can also lead to security breaches and identity theft. And when it comes to document destruction, there are federal and state laws on how to properly dispose of data. The risks that documents fall under include:

• Operational risk
• Financial risk
• Reputational risk
• Security Risks

Operational risks can affect the efficiency of the business. Financial risks can lead to monetary loss for the business. Loss of key documents can lead to a loss of reputation. Security risks can lead to information getting into the wrong hands.

Protect Your Businesses Documents the Right Way

In today’s digital era, protecting your businesses documents includes proper hardware destruction and hard drive destruction. Whether your hard drives are in laptops, desktops or tablets, the best way to destroy old hard drives is to use a partner who is experienced in IT asset disposition. This will best protect your business and keep you in compliance with the e-waste laws.

An experienced uniformed Carolina Shred technician will ensure that the data is unrecoverable and provide you with a certificate of destruction stating that all of the data has been properly erased and discarded. This way, you can prevent troubled audits and all sorts of compliance legal problems. When it comes to taking hard drives to their final resting place, scheduling regular shredding service is the way to go.

Paper Document Destruction

Although many businesses are shifting to storing data electronically, there are still many that store paper files. When you’re ready to dispose of paper documentation, it’s important that they are properly shredded. Here’s a list of some things that should go into the shredder.

• Voided checks
• Tax returns
• Credit card information
• Copies of sales receipts
• Photo IDs
• Employment records
• Bank statements

Today, it is mandated by the FTC Safeguards Rule of the GLB Act that companies undertake paper document destruction on a regular basis. There are even mobile document shredding companies that allow you to watch the paper documentation destruction process on a screen.

Other Ways to Protect Your Business Documents

There are many ways to protect your business documents prior to disposal. Paper documents should be in store rooms or storage cabinets with limited access. Files and documents should be labelled so that they don’t get mixed up. And outsiders should be supervised to prevent deliberate document breach.

Digital document security entails a different approach. Computer terminals should have regular maintenance to prevent breakdown and threats to document security. Long-term documents should be kept in the cloud or in a specialized digital backup. Firewalls must be installed to prevent unsanctioned intrusions on the IT network. And external storage devices should be controlled and monitored within the workspace.

Despite the fact that document security is paramount to most businesses, some small and medium enterprises fail to pay attention to it. Don’t be one of them. Be sure to regularly engage in proper document destruction of paper files and digital files.