Are You Paying Enough Attention to Document Security?
Posted on: 22 October 2019
If you keep a close eye on the news, you will have noticed that several large companies have fallen foul of new regulations relating to privacy and have been forced to pay a record fine. Many of these cases relate to digital information and found that these companies were unable to safeguard this data or may have been slow to report a hacking incident. You may not gather a great deal of electronic data yourself and may not be too worried about this type of occurrence in your own business, but how do you stand when it comes to real paper? Are you doing enough to make sure that you are protected from the laws that apply in this case?
Privacy Tests
Australia has recently introduced privacy laws of its own that may not be as stringent as some of those in Europe or elsewhere but may nevertheless have "teeth." Each business is required to look after sensitive or confidential documentation, whether it is in digital form or not.
Most companies will need to gather some form of data in order to function, but how they manage or store this information can be crucial. Above all else, they should ensure that they only keep it for as much time as is necessary, and when it is no longer of use, it must be adequately destroyed.
Easy Route
Some companies will buy an off-the-shelf machine and require that their employees get rid of this type of documentation that way. While this is one way to approach the issue, it is not necessarily the most secure and could lead to issues down the road.
Inefficient Work
Remember, employees may not be trained on how to properly dispose of this paper, and some standard equipment may not do as secure of a job as you might like. It may, in some situations, be possible to reconstruct a document even though it has been shredded by an entry-level machine, and this would be the worst-case scenario.
Best Approach
In order to ensure that you are as protected as possible and that you maintain your good reputation, you can outsource all of your document shredding work to a professional entity. They will have the right level of machines to take care of all of this and will provide you with proof once it is done. Furthermore, they will ensure that the waste is properly accounted for in accordance with the most up-to-date recycling strategies.
To learn more about corporate document destruction, consult a resource in your area.
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