5 Reasons Businesses Need to Protect Documents
Dumpster diving has taken on a whole new meaning. The Internet does many things to make our life easier, but it also makes it easier for a thief to open a credit card or banking account in the name of your business. Business identity theft is much more expensive than personal identity theft and often harder to prove. It’s the most important reason for monitoring your papers and making sure that sensitive documents are shredded and destroyed, but there are other good reason why a business should be extra careful.
Identity Theft is the most important reason to make sure you have safe processes for storing and destroying sensitive documents. It can literally bring your business down, destroy your relationship with clients and take both time and legal help to undo the damage that has been done. Your trash can is a great place for trash — not any financial, medical or employee record that contains personal or business information.
Get Shred, Store & Scan’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
It’s the Law. Know what federal or state laws apply to your business and how you destroy documents. Legislation regarding information privacy and security are getting stricter. Know what applies to you and your business and if a shredding size is specified.
Protect Your Reputation. Customers and employees expect that you will handle any document with sensitive information about them carefully and safely. A security breach can harm your good reputation and be extremely costly to your business. You’ve worked hard to grow your business and your good reputation; don’t let the lack of a processes for handling papers ruin that.
Corporate Espionage is real and if you work in a competitive environment, it can happen to you. A bid left on a desk and picked up by an unscrupulous employee may put money in his or her pocket and cost you plenty. Your 5 year plan may tell your competitor how to compete with you and win. If you develop new products, theft is especially damaging.
Space can be a big reward. If going to a locked filing cabinet is a trip your dread because it will take way too long to find what you need, it may be time for a cleanup. Shred or destroy sensitive documents but recycle all those old trade magazines and catalogs.
One of the best ways to handle sensitive documents is to use an on-site Paper Shredding Service Phoenix company. This limits the number of eyes and hands that might see a document and provides safe storage in a locked bin until shredding. A truck with a commercial shredder will come to your business and under your eyes or the eyes of a trusted employee will dump the storage bin’s contents into a commercial shredder than can meet all legal requirements. When the truck leaves, the documents are already shredded so you don’t have to worry about who may handle or see them
