Your company's security is vital to its longevity, well being and overall trustworthiness.
The landscape of thievery has evolved, so you need to always make sure you are ahead of the criminals. Destroying documents is one of the best things that you can do to ramp up your company's security.
It's important that you learn all about document shredding so that you can reach out to companies that specialize in this work. When taking the time to follow such procedures, you'll be in a great position to keep your business and the people in it as safe as possible.
Make use of this guide to help you out.
Why Destroying Documents Is So Crucial
You might be asking yourself whether destroying your documents is really that big a deal or not.
Paper shredding has become incredibly popular in this day and age, so you will need to learn all you can about the practice. Below we'll break down the key reasons that you need to pay close attention to destroying documents and make it a regular practice.
1. Customer Information Is At Risk
When you run any kind of company, your customers are choosing to trust you with their information.
Whether they're handing over their address, phone number, credit card info, checking account numbers or background history -- you need to be a good steward of this information.
All it takes is a single breach to lose the trust of your customers, and this can have tremendous effects on your reputation.
Shredding documents as soon as possible allows you to assist your customers in this regard so that they can feel great about doing business with you and spreading the word.
2. Internal Information Is At Risk
It's not just the customers that are trusting you to safeguard their info -- you owe that same obligation to your workforce.
Think about it -- when employees sign on with a company, it's par for the course to give their social security number, health records, and other such info. Knowing this, you owe it to yourself to protect the livelihood of your employees.
3. Identity Theft Is Huge
It's important to know that identity theft isn't a fad -- it's a serious problem.
In fact, people had more than $16 billion stolen from them in identity theft cases in 2017, according to a study.
It's become a new avenue for career criminals to exploit, which is why you need to stay ahead of the curve by stopping them in their tracks. These people are aggressively going after sensitive information and are making fortunes stealing from people.
When you remain a good steward of destroying documents, you get a chance to play defense against this growing threat.
4. Thieves Can Literally Steal Money
Breaching sensitive information can lead to thieves stealing your financial records to transfer money from your company.
This is why you need to be diligent about shredding checks, paystubs, and other important financial documents. The more you stay on top of this, the less chance you have of being robbed of your hard earned revenue.
5. Companies Are Experiencing More Data Breaches Today
Though consumers have been victims of identity theft in recent years, companies are getting hit harder than ever, and at alarming rates.
In fact, government bodies and companies have experienced a 40 percent increase in breaches over the past 2 years.
Because there's a market for criminals to exploit your company, you need to do everything in your power to prevent it -- starting with destroying documents.
Which brings us to...
How To Go About Destroying Documents
Since you now know the importance of destroying your documents, you need to learn some valuable tips that will help you do it.
Following these points will help you make the most of any documents you are trying to discard:
1. Develop A Routine For Destroying Documents
More than anything, you need to develop a schedule for getting rid of your documents.
Paper shredding is broken down into seven different security levels. The security level and frequency that you need depends on the type of business you do and information you take in.
Think about these points so that you can figure out how frequency you need to handle shredding. One company might need daily shredding, while others can be fine handling it every week or once a month.
Once you develop a routine for this work, make sure that you stick to it on a regular basis.
2. Know Which Information To Destroy
Aside from frequency, you also need to know which documents to get rid of.
As a rule of thumb, you should always keep your tax returns, while other documents, such as pay stubs, can be shredded after a while. Above all, make sure that these sensitive documents never find their way into the garbage without being properly shredded.
It's important to understand the environmental effects of paper shredding since it is a green-friendly practice that all companies should happily embrace.
3. Hire A Company To Handle Your Document Shredding
When you need to have your documents destroyed, you can do it more efficiently and at higher volumes when you bring in a professional company to handle it.
Make sure that you research the company to learn how they handle the document shredding services, and at which security levels. The more you know about this service and the company that provides it, the easier it will be for you to ramp up your company security.
Reach Out To Us To Learn More
Our company is the best around when it comes to document shredding services.
We would be happy to hear from you whenever you're in need of this sort of work. Take the time to visit our site and contact us today.