The shredder was once a popular and iconic item in the modern office, but document shredding is something that we rarely talk about these days. This is unfortunate because we do not yet live in a truly paperless office and there are still a lot of documents being passed around that contain personal information. - secure shredding service austin
Privacy and information security is something that every company should take seriously. The average cost of a security breach to an enterprise is in excess of five million once lost revenue and fees are taken into account. With so much on the line, you cannot afford to be lax with your security.
One of the most common sources of security breaches is companies simply failing to take into account the level of access that your own employees have to information in and around your business.
If you are leaving documents lying around in unlocked offices then there is a high chance that something will get stolen or be seen by someone who should not see it. If Sally in HR is unhappy in her job and get access to financial details or sensitive information about your customers, imagine what could go wrong.
Another common issue is disposing of documents. If you are just bagging up pieces of paper and throwing them in the bin, then people will get access to them, and they could piece together enough bits of information to do a lot of damage to your brand.
Document shredding will help to mitigate a lot of that risk. However, you should note that not all shredders are created equal. A lot of desktop shredders simply cut the paper you feed into them into strips - this will not do, since it is quite easy for people to reassemble the strips to read what was on the paper. Office-quality shredders, designed to shred truly sensitive information, are far more robust and will shred in a criss-cross pattern, turning the paper that passes through them into something like confetti. Of course, this means that you should be careful about what you shred, because if you shred a document by mistake you will not be able to put it back together!
Even homes should have a shredder to dispose of utility bills and other letters carefully. Identity theft is a serious issue, and something that more and more people are falling victim to. Dumpster diving to find documents that can be used as proof of ID is something that really does happen. Taking the time to destroy documents which could be used to steal your identity or commit fraud is a sensible thing to do - it only takes a minute or two, and it could potentially save you a lot of time and help you to avoid some rather painful and costly problems in the future.
For office environments, it is an essential addition - something that should form a part of your data security policy, and that every employee should use. - secure shredding service austin
