Whether it is client or customer details, proprietary organization information, employee files, or financial records, a lot of companies eventually find themselves in possession of valuable and sensitive data. Usually, a large percentage of this data is still stored on paper.
The bad news is that the responsibility to protect these sensitive data falls on the company’s shoulder, and paper is a very vulnerable way to store it. While a lot of organizations have modernized their workflows to help minimize their reliance on this unsecured medium, there are times when processing information using paper is unavoidable.
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It results in a gradual accumulation of stored paper records in offices. But hanging on to these essential documents longer than necessary can increase the risk of breaching confidentialities, a very devastating scene for any company to face.
The good news is, there is a simple solution to this problem: implement a strict data retention strategy and regularly destroy documents that fall outside of these strategies. One of the most effective and efficient ways to do it is to use a professional service provider.
The advantages of hiring third-party firms to handle these tasks are numerous. Not only do they help companies protect the confidentiality of the company’s data, but they also cost less compared to what most individuals think and take the stress and pressure of meeting document compliance requirements an ancient history.
There are tons of reasons why companies need to destroy documents as opposed to destroying these things themselves professionally, or worse, just throwing documents in the trash. The equipment and experience that professional shredding firms bring to the table can be pretty hard, if not impossible, to copy. Listed below are some reasons why hiring professionals to destroy sensitive documents instead of destroying them in-house.
Legal compliance
Safely and securely shredding valuable documents that contain Protected Health Information and Personally Identifiable Information is the law. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of statutes implemented at both the federal and state levels that focus on protecting the personal data of residents in the United States.
The Federal Trade Commission brings enforcement actions against businesses that fail to provide enough security to help protect people’s personal details. Not only that, a lot of federal statutes have been designed to address certain industries, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws that regulate healthcare industries, or the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which helps financial service industries.
One of the most significant benefits of using professionals in shredding files is that the employee training, processes, and equipment involved are particularly designed to make sure compliance with the law is adequately practiced.
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Enhanced security
Transgressions involving information fraud and identity theft are rising significantly all over the world. In almost every recorded case, the source of the info used in these transgressions comes from improper handling of important and sensitive personal details. Usually, seemingly harmless human errors cause these problems.
The usual suspects are piles of documents building up to shredders, improperly shredded paper, or misplaced documents. The truth is, employees are not to blame here since mistakes happen regularly. Forcing workers to maintain proper shredding protocols places them in an unfair burden and poses unnecessary risks to the company, as well as the security of the data.
Professionals help solve these issues by simplifying the internal file destruction process, as well as moving the responsibility of destroying files to third-party service providers. It helps eliminate human errors that ultimately lead to cracks in the company’s security armor, as well as protects the confidentiality of files the company possesses.
Minimize the cost
While it may appear to be cheaper for companies to purchase their own shredding device and handle the destruction of their files themselves, that is not always the case. Aside from possible expenses of dealing with fallouts of data breaches, the cost of equipment, manual labor, babysitting the workers to make sure they are following proper protocols, and worker training can add up quickly.
By hiring a document shredding Shred Northwest or other similar third-party services, companies will only pay for the service they need and not a dollar more. There are no devices to purchase, no worker training, no babysitting, no headache.
Conclusion
No matter how much paper shredding the organization needs, the choice is pretty clear: hiring a professional service provider can alleviate their paper problems. Companies need to protect their files by incorporating regular file destruction visits into their file management routine or schedule a one-time service visit to shred unnecessary files from their storage.