How environmentally friendly is your workplace? Most businesses today recycle their paper documents as part of their commitment to sustainable practices. But if you’re not recycling paper securely, your good intentions could lead to a security breach. By partnering with a secure document destruction company, you can make sure that every piece of paper you discard stays safe — from the time it leaves your hands to the moment it’s shredded and then recycled. Every ton of recycled paper can …
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Off-site document destruction can be risky business… and at worst lead to a security breach. The first concern is how confidential documents are stored before they are picked up. If they’re in open bins or boxes – rather than locked consoles – they can be easily accessed by anyone. Transporting un-shredded sensitive data also increases the risk for a security breach. Do the collection trucks make numerous stops? Do trucks sit unattended? This can increase the risk of information getting …
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It feels good to do your part for the environment – and recycling paper is one of the gold standards. Business plays a big role considering that the average office worker in the U.S. uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And, we’re doing a good job. In 2010, 63.5 percent of the paper used in the U.S. was recovered for recycling. The Paper Industry Association Council says that number represents an …
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Tax time is a busy time not just for accountants – but for identity thieves too. Identity thieves use sophisticated phishing scams online to gather personal information. They also find – and steal – tax returns and other sensitive documents by going through garbage containers and recycling bins. The cost to victims of identity theft is an estimated five billion dollars per year in the U.S. Furthermore, if your identity is stolen it can be a long and frustrating process …
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“A lot of healthcare organizations figure their mission in life is to treat people and get them well, it’s really not about patient data security,” Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute, told InformationWeek Healthcare. But, of course, it is about patient data security too – and that was his point. Ponemon was discussing the 2011 Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security by Ponemon Institute. One of the most significant findings was that data breaches have …
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For sure, many businesses are required to keep a variety of records and documents for a minimum amount of time, usually seven years. But the answer really depends on the industry you are in and the legal requirements and privacy laws that pertain to the information. Also, laws and requirements can differ by state and country. For organizations in the healthcare field Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, (HIPAA), requires appropriate safeguards to protect privacy of information for as long …
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Has your business ever been asked to prove that certain documents no longer exist? It can happen… and the best way to provide proof would be to pull out an official certificate of destruction verifying exactly when and where document destruction occurred. Of course, destroying documents that are no longer needed is a very important part of compliance with privacy rules and legislation. And, in North America, there’s a lot of them. In the United States, for example, the Health …
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How Secure is Your E-Media Disposal Process? It would be wonderful if you could delete or erase all of the sensitive data that resides on old company computers and ensure it was gone for good. But you can’t. In fact, not only does that sensitive data stay on your computer, but it’s easier to recover than you would think. MIT, for example, was able to recover 92.4%, almost all, of the sensitive information contained on disposed of hard drives; including …
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Understanding your risks is your first step to better identity security for you and your customers. Your small business is unique. You might think that, due to the smaller size of your business, it isn’t exposed to the same security risks as a Fortune 500 company. Unfortunately, a smaller company doesn’t equate to a smaller risk. In 2010, Symantec performed a business security survey on small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. It found that 75% of small business owners …
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