Security - Why Shred?

According to business espionage experts, the fastest growing source of fraud, identity theft, and corporate espionage today is the simple lack of secure disposal of printed documents and other storage media like CDs, diskettes, etc. Office shredding machines cannot keep up with the volume of work needed. These office shredders also place an undue burden and responsibility on your office staff. In the end, you are left with uncertainty regarding the destruction of your documents. In addition your shredded documents ultimately end up in your trash where they can be reconstructed by "dumpster divers" and can be used in an identity theft crime. These paid "dumpster divers" leave your company exposed to the security theft of your organization's most critical data which could result in costly business, state and federal fines.

What to Shred

In order to be compliant with the laws and protect yourself, stockholders, employees, and customers/patients, you should destroy all confidential and outdated material.

What Should Be Shredded?

• Any document, which contains confidential material (designs, proposals, plans, and drafts of such information)
• Any document which could be used for the purpose of identity theft (social security numbers, customer lists, credit applications, tax returns, etc)
• Any document which could cause harm in the hands of criminals or competitors (canceled checks, price lists, business plans, credit card numbers)
• Any document which is mandated to be protected by laws such as HIPAA (healthcare), GLB (financial) or FACTA (general)
• Any non-paper item which could cause harm to you or others in the hands of criminals (security uniforms, employee identification cards, product packaging, out of spec products, recalled products, etc.)

Here some examples of items to be shredded: