There are so many reasons why you need to undertake secure paper shredding at the office or even at home. However, this important activity should never be overlooked especially if you are working professional handling private client information. Holding onto documents whose use is obsolete poses a huge risk not just to your business but the people you do business with. We can all agree that paperwork is a tedious process and nobody including business owners want to go through the hassle of sorting out documents. You don’t have to do sort old documents that you no longer use but can outsource the task. Once this is done, shred any physical documents that are no longer required but contain information that should not be disclosed to a third party. A massive data breach can be a huge detriment to your business. Below are the reasons why you should undertake routine secure paper shredding.
Legal Reasons
Most businesses always have a clause promising to uphold confidentiality of clients’ data from unauthorized access. This clause is actually captured in law and any violation has legal consequences. Some of the regulations that safeguard security of business documents include; FACTA, HIPAA and Sarbanes-Oxley and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Being in compliance with such regulations will not cost you anything. All you need to invest in is a good commercial paper shredder especially if you will need undertake secure paper shredding on a frequent basis. The cost of acquiring a good industrial office shredder cannot match the cost of legal cost that may be slapped on you in the event of a massive data breach.
Reputation Risk
There is one common element that most businesses survive on-a good reputation. Any business that has in the past been associated with a massive data leak can take years or decades before regaining its credibility. However, all this can be avoided if you routinely ensure that secure paper shredding is part and parcel of your business process. Sometimes the impact of data loss or leakage is irreversible. In 2017 alone, an estimated 16.7 million people were victims of identity fraud. Considering the circumstances under which private information is used, no one will wish to transact with a business that cannot securely safeguard their data. The going can get even tougher if you are running a business where clients have no option but to disclose private information.. There are subscription websites that have private data of members. If any of this information has been stored physically, the only way of securing it is initiating level 6 shredding.
Business Sustainability and Peace of Mind
It is actually not possible to store a huge amount of data in physical form in a world where everything has become digitized. Considering that there is a much more effective and efficient way of data storage and retrieval, you should consider digitizing your business by engaging in secure paper shredding of private information. If you run a large business with a lot of paperwork, invest in a good high capacity paper shredder. The idea here is not to entirely phase out manual filing of data but rather, to ensure that any information that has been stored in physical format but is no longer in use is destroyed. You cannot know who might come across such information and what they might do with it. More importantly, why waste a lot of office space storing files in physical format while you can easily store data in digital format and only allow access to the said data to authorized users only.
