Protecting Sensitive Information
When you consider the following industries they all have one thing in common. Law, government, healthcare, financial sector, technology, legal, manufacturing, entertainment and banking all deal with very sensitive information throughout their operations. This data need to have secure storage and when it needs destroying it needs professional commercial paper shredding.
What data is sensitive and why?
The kind of data that is sensitive includes things like bank account statements, wage information, sales receipts, personnel records, credit card data, social security information, blueprints and innovative designs, business letters and such. This is information used to commit identity theft, steal company secrets and it can do a lot of damage. It can mean bad publicity and a hit to the business’s reputation, it can mean the loss of employees, the loss of customers, clients and investors, the possible loss of the business and even potential indictment. Paper shredding those sensitive documents can prevent that.
Keeping it secure
The issue of shredding information-sensitive documents is not just about how you carry that out. There is first the concern of how those documents are stored before the shredding takes place. If you are doing it in-house you need to have somewhere that is secure to store it and your shredding machine needs to also be somewhere secure. If you choose to go the route of commercial paper shredding with a professional service they supply businesses with storage containers that are secure. That saves your business from having to waste precious office space.
Document shredding
There is some flexibility when it comes to paper shredding. If you do not often have the need you might get a small office shredder and have an employee take care of it when it comes up. When there is more to shred it might make sense to use a service. You can still use a service even when your needs are low though, most places are happy to accept infrequent or even one-off jobs.
Document shredding services offer both on-site options and off-site. The first one is good for the most sensitive material when you need to see it happen at your location. It does cost more, but it is the most secure method. They send a shredder on a truck to your premises. Off-site is when they pick up and take it to their own site, or in smaller cases when you send it to them. More affordable but you are not there in person. It is worth mentioning a small number of services to allow representatives to visit to witness it, and some have surveillance cameras from which you can observe the process. All certified shredding services should offer certification when the destruction is carried out.
Other advantages to using a commercial paper shredding service
There are many reasons to use a service for shredding. They include;
Save money in having to buy your equipment and maintain it. Save money on wages paid to your employees doing the shredding too.
When your employees have freed up time from shredding they can hopefully be more productive and efficient.
Better for the environment as when dealing with small pieces but in bulk amounts paper shredding services are usually able to have their materials recycled.