The importance of proper confidential document disposal cannot be overstated enough. When you partner with a provider like Shred on Site, the entire process becomes incredibly easy – a representative will come to your business and prepare all of the documents on your behalf. This confidential information will then be destroyed on site, before anything sensitive even has a chance to leave your physical location. To understand exactly how important proper document destruction is, it can be helpful to look at the events surrounding a “worst case scenario” that you could be opening your business, your employees, and your customers to if you make the wrong decisions.
Document Disposal: Where It All Went Wrong
There are two major types of mistakes that many businesses can make when it comes to document destruction, both of which have incredibly severe consequences. The first involves coming to the incorrect conclusion that simply shredding documents is enough to keep the valuable information that they contain from falling into the wrong hands. Though you may lack the tools necessary to piece these documents back together again, never underestimate the willpower of someone with malicious intentions who just wishes to do you wrong. Crime gangs and even individuals (with plenty of time and patience on their hands!) have been convicted in recent times of committing fraud and identity theft after painstakingly piecing together shredded documents. There is even computer software that professional investigators use that will aid you.
So how do you ultimately protect yourself from this scenario? By removing the part of the equation where your shredded confidential documents are exposed to outsiders. By using Shred on Site to destroy your confidential documents, you can be rest assured that no third party will have access from the moment you observe our shredding trucks destroy your documents, to the moment we load them into the recycling disposal centre. At no time are your shredded documents left unattended, eliminating the risk of theft. The other benefit to using Shred on Site is that we do not shred paper using the traditional ‘straight line’ shredding method. All of our documents are shredded using a ‘pierce and tear’ method, making it virtually impossible to reconstruct the documents.
Improper Document Disposal: What Happens Next
The only thing worse than having your information stolen due to improper destruction techniques is what happens next. The information that you store about clients, for example, often includes things like credit card numbers, account information, bank account data and more. Essentially, all of the information that a person would need to either steal their identity or make fraudulent charges in their name.
The same is true for the types of information that you keep about former and current employees. If this valuable data is exposed to the wrong people, it could cause an incredible amount of damage to the personal lives of these people. Not only that, but you’re also opening your business up to retribution. Not only will you be in violation of certain rules and regulations regarding the storage of this information, but also the damage to your reputation that can be caused by such a breach is something that most small businesses will never recover from.
For complete peace of mind mobile document shredding for your home or business, contact us today.
