Best Practices For Sensitive Document Disposal

Do you fear that your company’s sensitive documents will be your undoing? Are you afraid that your lack of intention with sensitive documents will one day lead to confidential information getting into the wrong hands? If so, then you need to learn all about proper sensitive document disposal for your company.

Doing so can help you store and get rid of important information the right way. No more lying awake at night worrying that a client’s credit card number will be stolen. See below for an in-depth guide you can use to get rid of all your sensitive documents the right way.

How to Dispose of Confidential Documents

We’ve all seen those cliché moments in movies where they wad up a piece of paper and throw it over their shoulder. If you’re throwing away sensitive information without shredding it, that’s essentially how effective your document disposal tactics currently are. If you’re going to learn how to dispose of confidential documents the right way, you need only remember this one principle: shred, don’t toss. In other words: any physical document you need to dispose of should be shredded, not just thrown away. But even that’s not enough. If someone really wants to get their hands on sensitive information, a few shredded pieces of paper in your open trash can won’t stop them. You need to make sure the entire disposal process is fool-proof.

Here at IntelliShred, we offer the best document destruction services on the market. We’ll shred all of your documentation in front of you to maintain accountability. Once we’re done, those go into our security containers which are locked. After that’s complete, we provide you with a certificate of destruction to ensure you that the process is finished. We fit any paper shredding needs you have. Whether it be a one-time purge shredding session or regularly scheduled shredding, we can accommodate your needs!

The Advantages of Proper Disposal

Did you know that over 33-percent of all Americans have experienced identity theft in some form or fashion? That means that one in every three people endure this uncomfortable situation. 

While you can’t prevent your clients from ever experiencing that, you can do your utmost to ensure it isn’t due to your company’s negligence. See below for several advantages of figuring out how to dispose of confidential documents for your company.

Protects Trust With Your Clients

Here’s the good news: you won’t have to build a client’s trust for handling their personal information. If they purchase your products, they’ve already shown that they trust you to handle them properly. Here’s the bad news: one false move, and you can lose their trust for good. Not only will you lose their business, but they might also sue you for negligence if they can prove the information was stolen from your database. Proper document disposal will ensure that the latter never occurs. You’ll be able to maintain a customer’s trust and build on it for years to come. As their trust with your brand grows, so too does their customer loyalty.

You Can Save Money

Like it or not, proper document disposal is a necessity. That said, hiring a professional document shredding company like IntelliShred can help you save money on the entire process. Our services include everything from shredding to disposal. We provide all of the equipment to tear those documents to pieces and ensure that no one can ever retrieve them. That means that your company gets access to proper document destruction without paying for things such as paper shredders, energy bills, and other equipment that you might otherwise need to invest in. Instead, you can leave the shredding in the hands of a professional. We service companies across many different industries. You just tell us a bit about your business model and the things you need shredded, then we’ll make sure to accommodate it.

Eco-Friendly Disposal

Unfortunately, physical documents aren’t the only way that people can get their hands on sensitive information. If you don’t get rid of an electronic device the right way, someone could hack into its hard drive and retrieve things like social security numbers, tax information, and so forth. Needless to say, you need to find a way of properly recycling things like hard drives, computers, monitors, printers, and other electronic devices. We’ve got you covered there as well! Our E-Waste services will ensure that all these items are safely destroyed. This will protect your company, your employees, and your clients.

Boosts Efficiency

You and your staff have enough to worry about, why add document destruction to that list? Odds are that if you rely on your workers to destroy documentation, the quality of document disposal will suffer. Adding this to their plate also gives them one more thing to try and prioritize. That can lead to lowered sales calls, less revenue, and poor lead generation.  By teaming up with IntelliShred, you’ll be able to put that responsibility in our hands. You’ll have full peace of mind, knowing that your workers are freed up to do their jobs.

Invest in Sensitive Document Disposal Today

Now that you have seen an in-depth guide on how to dispose of confidential documents the right way, be sure to implement this sensitive document disposal strategy into your business operations. Be sure to read this article for more information on the 7 reasons you should use a commercial paper shredding service for your business.

For more inquiries, please be sure to contact us and we will be happy to assist you further.

Data breaches, thievery, and identity theft. Privacy online is at more risk than arguably ever before. Every purchase and form you fill out online, you are trusting a service to encrypt and protect your personal information. Sometimes, your personal information is in the hands of your employer. Even companies that you think would have secure protection have fallen victim to, like Facebook having 29,000 employees’ banking data stolen back in 2019. The reason for that theft? Facebook did not have secure hard disk disposal. The hard drives were unencrypted and were able to be taken by simply breaking into a car. 

Things like banking data, your credit card numbers, driver’s license information, and even your social security number all can be used for identity theft with information recovered from a hard drive. So, how can you protect yourself? Destroy your hard drive securely. 

Use On-Site Document Destruction 

Let’s be honest. A lot of you probably feel better about anything you hear if you see it with your own eyes. People can tell you and assure you that your items will be properly taken care of, but seeing it done yourself can give you that extra assurance. There are several reasons why this is a preferable option to destroy your hard drives. The main one is keeping an eye on your own belongings.

Would you feel confident about potentially sending hundreds of thousands of people’s personal information or confidential company information to somewhere you don’t know and people you don’t know? Most of you probably would not be fully comfortable with that. Working with people on-site not only allows you to destroy your hard drive safely with professionals but also securely with visual proof that every item you need to be destroyed is taken care of. It is important not only to have trust in the process but also to make sure that nothing gets lost due to negligence. Doing both successfully will definitely minimize the risk of any possible identity theft. 

Properly Cleaning Your Hard Drive

This situation is especially important for more personal use and you are looking to sell your computer and/or hard drives to make a few extra bucks. Right? Well…not so fast. 

This study alarmingly revealed that 60% of the people that tried to sell used hard drives did not properly clean out the hard drive before selling it to the next person. Identity thieves LOVE this, and it is handed on a silver platter. Think about the information that could be there like passwords to confidential accounts that really open up the rabbit hole for identity thieves. Those can lead to those credit cards, forms filled out online, potentially even tax information, and your social security number! 

There are a lot of people out there that probably would not think twice about handing over a hard drive with that kind of information still on it. Unfortunately, some of those people may have learned the hard way why it is important to clean your hard drive. In this case, one option can be using specific software to wipe your hard drive completely and for insurance, potentially using a screwdriver to dismantle it. But, most of the time, it is better and safer to just destroy the hard drive completely. What can happen if you do not do it securely though? 

Open to a Civil Lawsuit

We have already explained what could happen to your personal computer and personal information if a hard drive disk disposal is not done securely. But, what about companies? What do they face? The answer is not only the potential loss of trust from their employees and customers if they put their information at risk, but also even potentially a civil lawsuit. One of the biggest recent examples of this was from the Equifax Data Breach in September of 2017. This data breach compromised the information of 147 million people. 

In January of 2020, it was announced that Equifax had a $425 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to try to help the possible victims of identity theft due to that breach. Obviously, this is an extreme example in a huge company. Nevertheless, if you have a company that is responsible for your employees’ and/or customers’ sensitive personal information, you can be held liable if it gets compromised. While it is true that not every instance of this is deemed a company’s fault, negligence or poor security measures can become potential factors to liability. On top of that, it could be difficult to get people to rely on you with securing their information again or even do business with you. 

Secure Hard Disk Disposal?

So, now that you know the risks of not taking care of personal and/or company information, the question becomes, how to destroy vulnerable personal information on hard drives securely? The answer is to use a shredding service. You can work with professionals who do this daily vs. you and your company likely doing this for the first time. 

You can eliminate the risk of not properly going through everything trying to destroy hard drives and documents in-house, getting it stolen via transit, or anything getting lost or compromised at an off-site location. The last thing you want is to have a Facebook situation and have hard drives stolen from your car, right? If you work with a shredding service, they will make you aware of every possible risk of not doing it properly. What is one easy way to do that? 

Use IntelliShred For Your Security

Now, you know a little more about the importance of disposing of your hard disk safely and securely. Contact us if you or your company are in the New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania area and need secure hard disk disposal. 

IntelliShred has been operating for 22 years and has several testimonials from companies that have successfully used this service in the past. 

Your company deals with a lot of confidential information day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. If this data gets into the wrong hands, the fallout could potentially be catastrophic. Your brand could take a hit, your customers’ confidence in your company might drop, and your corporate bottom line might take a major hit.

This is why confidential information needs to be handled properly. Whether it involves credit card statements or personal client information, you’ll want to ensure that these documents are either stored or disposed of appropriately. The mobile shredder services option is one way you can dispose of confidential documents responsibly. Read on to find out how taking advantage of such a service, versus doing it yourself, can save your business some money.

Make Better Use of Human Capital With Mobile Shredder Services

When you hire a reputable paper shredding company, you will be able to outsource this important responsibility. This will allow your employees to focus on what they do best while the service provider does what it does best. Asking your employees to lay aside their duties to shred important documents will, over time, adversely impact your corporate bottom line. This will be a function of the accumulative impact of setting aside their regular duties.

The small chunks of time they take to shred documents will add up over time. It will be more cost-effective for you to retain the services of a professional. You also have to consider that staff who are not trained to shred documents in a systematic way that includes best practices may not do it right. And if the job isn’t being done properly, your staff may end up doing more harm than good.

You also need to consider that other options for destroying documents can range from time-consuming to less than thorough.

Maximize Use of Space

Another way you’ll save when you sign up for shredding services is by maximizing the use of your square footage. In other words, you won’t have to set aside floor space in your office for paper shredding duties. The reason for this is that mobile shredding companies will retrieve your documents. They will then complete the job by destroying the documents in special equipment that can be operated outside of your office.

When you free up space by not housing shredding equipment or an overabundance of filing cabinets, you’ll have more space for your employees to perform the workflows that ultimately earn you more money. So retaining the help of a paper shredder company will, by making you more money, help you save money. It’s a cost-effective service that will offer more opportunities since you’ll be able to dedicate more floor space to staff. 

Avoid Facing Penalties

You also need to consider the costs associated with violating HIPAA and FACTA rules. You must consider this when looking at your company’s document shredding protocols. Failing on this front can cost you. So when you hire a company for shredding services, you’ll be able to count on them to offer proof of compliance, security ahead of shredding, and record retention provisions. This will help you to stay on the right side of the law. By avoiding fines or penalties applicable to those who violate document shredding rules, your company will save money.  

Save on Maintenance Expenses

If you decide to perform paper shredding in-house rather than to hire a shredding services company, you will have to perform maintenance. So you won’t only have to buy the equipment. You’ll have to perform maintenance. And maintenance will require your workers to step away from their work to, among other things, remove debris from the blades and clear any jams that occur when using the equipment. The employee hours will add up. Routine maintenance won’t be all you’ll have to account for either since there may be instances where you’ll need to call in a technician for repairs. 

And if you think that buying a cheaper model will solve the issue, think again. A bargain-basement priced model will simply wear out faster, require more maintenance, and give you more problems than you’ll want to deal with. You’ll be better off hiring a mobile shredding business that will be able to provide the service you need when you need it. They’ll handle all the ins and outs of properly shredding your confidential documents. 

Strong Reputation

If your company loses the trust of its clients, you will see that reflected on your bottom line. No one will want to do business with a company that makes the headlines for security breaches that could have been prevented. When you take decisive measures to properly shred confidential information, your customers will see that you take their privacy and security seriously. This will help you to reduce or eliminate the customer churn rate. Remember that it’s cheaper to retain customers than it is to win over new customers. So doing everything you can to hold onto existing clients is critical.

Do You Need to Find a Mobile Shredding Company?

You don’t want to face a damaging data breach situation. It’s important to do whatever you can to reduce the risks of encountering such a problem. And document destruction is one way you can accomplish this objective. That’s where we come into the picture. We specialize in offering mobile shredder services so that you can focus on your core competency.

For the help you need, get in touch. We’ll be honored to help you with your document destruction needs.