It’s always been important for businesses to keep sensitive information private, especially out of the hands of rivals. Corporate espionage has a long history, as obtaining trade secrets has been used to undermine competitors or even for blackmail.
With the news blaring headlines about the latest cyber security breach, the need for businesses to stay guarded has only been made more apparent. It’s important to understand what separates the best pro shredders from the rest, because when keeping your private documents safe you don’t want to cut any corners.
Here are the signs that the pro shredder you’re dealing with is an industry leader.
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NAID-Certified
The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) is the industry’s only watchdog that assures compliance with industry standards and best practices with both scheduled and unannounced random audits. Thousands of government and private sector contracts require that a company fulfill the standards of the NAID-AAA Certified program.
There are only about 1,000 service providers which have the AAA designation. If you’re a company looking to fulfill your regulatory due diligence obligations, you can do no better than finding a professional shredder that has been AAA NAID certified.
Mobile Paper and Electronic Shredding
Companies may have boatloads of paper to shred, and transporting such heavy and sensitive documents could pose challenging logistical problems, in addition to just being a pain in the neck. Today’s top shredders will come right to you.
For small volumes of paper shredding, they can destroy the papers right in front of your premises in their mobile shredding truck. For larger volumes, the shredding company will still come right to your office, but they’ll bring the paper to their facility for secure destruction. Either way, you never have to worry about how to carry so much heavy, sensitive material, or even lift a finger.
Beyond paper, businesses store lots of information on electronic devices. If these devices are no longer in use, all they’re doing is posing a potential liability — have them shredded. Common devices for destruction include old computers, laptops, hard drives, flash drives and USBs, but also photocopier memory cards. Any electronic storing information can’t just be thrown into the garbage — they need to have their microchips destroyed so the data on them cannot possibly be retrieved.
Speciality Destruction
Some industries have their own unique vulnerabilities. Dentists can suffer a data breach if dental records or X-rays get into the wrong hands. Pharmaceutical packaging poses problems for health industry workers, and things like ID or security passes need to be safely eliminated.
The best companies have a program in place to destroy any sensitive information, no matter what form it takes. Finally, they should be sure to reuse as much recyclable material as possible and strive to help companies improve their carbon footprint.
Knowing you need to hire professional shredders to destroy sensitive material is half the battle; recognizing the hallmarks of a true industry leader in information destruction is the other. Hire the real shredding experts today, and your company can get valuable peace of mind.
About Carson Derrow
