Document shredding is a must if you want to protect sensitive business information, customer records, and employee documents.
Australian business owners must take control of the privacy of their business with effective shredding practices. The improper destruction of documents and data can put your business at risk of data loss, fraudulent activity, and legal consequences.
Think about this.
It doesn’t take a stealth cyber attacker to enter into a business with the intent to cause a data breach. Take a look around any business location, and sensitive documents are likely to be found on a printer tray or left unattended on a desk.
In a 2018 report from Gemalto, a world-leading digital security company, they found that:
- 20% of all data breaches were due to an unknown or unaccounted number of compromised data records
- 25 million records are compromised or exposed every day (that’s 291 records every second)
This is why a secure document shredding company, like Shred2U, can ensure all of your information will be securely destroyed. To ensure you are following shredding best practices, learn how the right way to destroy your documents so that you not only prevent unwanted data breaches but also protect the reputation of your business.
Why is Data Privacy Important
Any business that collects personal information from individuals, they create a database of information that should be kept confidential and protected. Whenever data falls into the hands of the wrong person, bad things can happen.
When a data breach occurs at a financial tech company, for example, it could lead to the disclosure of a client’s financial information and the loss of millions of dollars. A data breach at a corporation could result in proprietary information being accessible to a competitor. A data breach at a school could put a students’ identification into the hands of a criminal who could commit identity theft. A data breach at a hospital can put sensitive medical information into the hands of a person who would misuse and abuse it.
For a business, data privacy is a necessity to ensure the longevity of its operations but also to protect its employees, customers, and community.
Risks to Your Business
Every year there are thousands of cyber breaches to Australian businesses. Most of these cyber breaches affect small business owners and pose a real threat toward their sensitive data.
According to the Office of Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), there were 254 notifications of a data breach between 1 April to 30 June in 2019 regarding:
- Contact information (220)
- Financial details (102)
- Identity information (76)
- Health information (67)
- Tax File Numbers (38)
The OAIC also revealed the cause to these data breaches:
- 62% due to malicious activity or criminal attack
- 34% due to human error
- 4% due to system error
Data Risks Due to Human Error
With 34% of data breaches and incidents due to human error, this poses a serious concern for all business owners. From misplaced documents to improper document disposal, there are a variety of errors humans make which are compromising a businesses integrity.
Here were some of the common errors reported by the OAIC in their 2019 quarterly report:
- Unauthorized disclosure via verbal or unintended release
- Personal information sent to the wrong person via fax, email, mail, etc.
- Loss of paperwork / data storage device
- Failure to use BCC when emailing someone
- Insecure disposal
Despite efforts to protect customer data, human error is often a risk that allows attackers to access channels and sensitive information.
Consequences of a Data Breach
The consequences for businesses that experience a data breach can be severe and costly. When a data breach occurs, businesses must notify individuals that their data has been compromised. There are different requirements and penalties that businesses face during a data breach throughout Australia.
For businesses operating internationally and involving customers in different regions, a business must follow protocols to resolve this issue according to the regulatory authority in that jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction defines the type of data which requires a notification, how individuals should be notified after a breach, and how to carry out notifications with specific authorities.
The costs of these processes, not including any legal penalties, can add increase substantially if a business is required to provide compensation for damages. Businesses can face end up facing lawsuits that can pose a threat to their ability to continue operating.
85% of customers refuse to continue doing business after a data breach.
(Source)
Short Term Consequences of a Data Breach
- Direct fines and fees. Depending on the authorities that regulate the protection of personal data, businesses can receive fines after a data breach. In Europe, the GDPR has the ability to fine a business as much as 4% of their top-line revenue for failing to protect their customer’s personal data.
- Forensic investigations. Most businesses will be responsible for conducting a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the data breach. Although these investigations can be used to prevent data breaches in the future, the process of conducting an investigation can be costly.
- Future security costs. After a breach occurs, businesses are expected to update and improve their security measures to ensure the prevention of such incidents to occur again.
Long Term Consequences of a Data Breach
- Damaged reputation. A data breach can result in headline news which can have a negative impact on a business’ reputation. Bad publicity can slow a business’ sales for months to years after the data breach occurred.
- Loss of customers and value. When customers have their data compromised they lose trust for that business. In some cases, a business can see a decrease in share value which can cost shareholders millions.
- Lengthy recovery process. According to IBM, it can take up to 197 days to identify and 69 days to contain a data breach.
Understanding the consequences a data breach can have to your business is an important first step to establishing a plan to safeguard and secure your data. The next step is to create an action plan that can be implemented throughout your ensure business to ensure the highest level of protection for your customers, staff, and stakeholders.
How to Protect Your Customer Data
Data protection is a necessity for any business to ensure long-term sustainability and total protection of the data they collect. Preparation, technology, and adherence to privacy policies are the fundamental ways to reduce the risk of a data breach as well as to safeguard customer data.
Here are four ways to improve data protection at your business:
1. Collect Only What You Need
When you collect unnecessary information about your customers, you not only waste energy and resources but also create a larger database for criminals to target. Its best practice to reduce the amount of information that you collect to the bare minimum as well as giving customers the option of opting out from sharing personal information with you.
2. Limit Access to Personal Information
Not everyone at your business needs to have access to a customer’s personal information. The fewer the people who can access customer data, the fewer the opportunities for a data breach to occur.
3. Create a Privacy Policy that Everyone Must Follow
Customer security goes beyond setting up IT firewalls and using the latest technology. Often, employees and third-party services providers of a business can result in an unexpected data breach. Every business needs a security program and policy to ensure that everyone who works with or comes in contact with your business can understand it, but more importantly, follows it.
4. Destroy Customer Data After Using It
If you only require information to be kept on file for a certain amount of time, be sure to destroy that information when you’re done using it completely. For any customer data stored in documents or paper format, use a shredding service to add an extra layer of confidence to your privacy measures.
Cases of Customer Data Being Lost & Violated
The following three cases of data breaches are just a few examples of the rise of criminal activity and threats to Australian businesses.
If you’re a small business owner, you might not think these stories and headlines about data breaches occurring to big business is a concern for you. However, numerous data breaches that are left unreported, especially since Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 only requires business with an annual turnover of $3 million or more to submit a report.
The best way to protect your business, regardless of its size, is to understand the laws that govern privacy protection and by implementing the best policies to ensure the highest level of protection.
Trade Secret Theft
Trace Secret Theft is the malicious intent to access confidential and proprietary information from a business in order to gain a competitive advantage in the same industry. Typically this type of theft is difficult to detect and often lack enough evidence to prove that an individual stole information in court.
Case Study: 2010 Incident at a European Bank
Managers at a European bank in Singapore conspired to quit and work for a competing bank. Before they left, the soon-to-be ex-managers emailed confidential information from the bank’s computer system to their personal email accounts. They also accessed and printed confidential documents. Fortunately, the ex-managers were caught and charged for unauthorized access of confidential client data in Singapore.
(Source)
Improper Disposal of Documents
Securing and managing sensitive documents should be a top priority for any organization that collects customer data, employee information, trade secrets, company reports, financial details, and more.
Simply throwing documents in the trash is not a solution for disposing of documents and poses a risk for a potential breach of information. Even if a business does their own shredding and disposing it for recycling, these documents can be “restored.”
While this may seem unlikely, documents that are shredded into strips and found laying beside a garbage bin outside a business can be reconstructed manually. There is also software that allows strips to be scanned and realigned to recreate the original document.
Case Study: Medical Lab Threw Away Results in the Dumpster
On November 27, 2015, the Community Mercy Health Partners (CMHP) reported that patient records were discovered in a recycling dumpster outside their facility.
CMHP first became aware of the improper disposal of documents when they were contacted by local law enforcement. Employees were immediately sent to the recycling site to collect all the documents.
Fortunately, all documents were retrieved, however, it is estimated that up to 113,500 individuals could have been impacted. Although no one was affected, the potential loss of patients’ names, physicians’ names, types of lab work, diagnoses, health insurance information, and other sensitive clinical data was at risk.
CMHP posted the following statement after the incident, “To help prevent this from happening in the future, we have taken steps to re-inventory all document storage locations, significantly reduced or eliminated retention of paper documents when the information is electronically available, and re-educated our facilities management contractors on the requirements for physical storage relocation projects.”
(Source)
Photocopier Breach
Every time a document is printed using a photocopier or printing machine, imprints of the file can be stored in the device’s memory. This is often an overlooked error which may not pose a problem for most companies that purchase their own printing equipment. However, for companies that are leasing out equipment, forgetting to sanitize and wipe all data from these machines can result in sensitive data being accessible to whoever uses them next.
Case Study: $1.2 Million Fine for a Health Company
Affinity Health Plan is a New York-based insurance company that provides cost-effective health plans.
In 2010, more than 344,000 individuals personal data was discovered on hard drives and copiers that were returned to a leasing company. The company had to pay a $1.2 million fine for not properly sanitizing the devices before returning them.
In a statement by the Federal Trade Commission, they said “the hard drive in a digital copier stores data about the documents it copies, prints, scans, faxes or emails. If you don’t take steps to protect that data, it can be stolen from the hard drive, either by remote access or by extracting the data once the drive has been removed.”
(Source)
Understand the Australian Data Privacy Laws
Many Australian organizations choose to shred their sensitive documents; however, is this a choice or a legal obligation?
In brief, Australian businesses are not required by law to shred their documents, but they can be legally held responsible for negligence or the exposure of employee or customer information. It is not a mandatory legal step that business must take to secure their business, document shredding is a simple and effective way to protect private information.
According to Jason Hart, VP and CTO for Data Protection at Gemalto, he says to “expect to see more data breaches reported … in Australia with the new Notifiable Data Breaches law. We should be careful not to misconstrue this as an increase in overall incidents in these areas but rather as a more accurate reflection of what is actually going on.”
Nonetheless, to understand the legal requirements a company has regarding the information they collect, store, and maintain, here’s a quick overview of the Australian Data Privacy Laws.
Australia’s Privacy Act 1988
There are strict laws regarding the collection, use and storage of personal information in Australia.
According to the Privacy Act 1988, the Australian Government states that businesses are legally required to keep certain financial, legal, and employee records secure. It also states that these records must be detailed in a business’ policy and procedures to ensure they are taking measures to safeguard this information.
Who Must Comply To This Law?
Australian organizations must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 if:
- they handle Personal Information (defined below), and
- have $3 million or more in annual turnover, or
- are captured by the second set of criteria set out in the Act)
Please be aware!
In the “second set” of criteria, the Australian Government states that every business, regardless of turnover, you may be responsible if you sell or purchase Personal Information or handle specific information, such as TFC (Tax File Numbers, Health & Medical Data, etc.).
Check the following list to decide whether or not your business must comply with the Privacy Act 1988.
Your business is…
- a health service provider
- trading in personal information
- a contractor that provides services under a Commonwealth contract
- an operator of a residential tenancy database
- a credit reporting body
- a reporting entity for the purposes of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006
- employee associations registered or recognised under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009
- a business that conducts protection action ballots
- related to a business the Privacy Act covers
- a business prescribed by the Privacy Regulation 2013
- a business that has opted in to be covered by the Privacy Act
(Source)
If your business must comply with the Privacy Act 1988, you will also be expected to follow the Australian Privacy Principles.
Australia’s Privacy Principles (APP)
In total, there are 13 principles that every organization covered by the Privacy Act 1988 must follow. These principles govern the standards, rights, and obligations a business has regarding:
- Collection, using, and disclosing personal information
- Their governance and accountability
- Integrity and correction of personal information
- Rights of individuals to access their personal information
Here is a quick summary of all 13 principles:
- Every organization must be open and transparent management of personal information, which includes a clearly expressed privacy policy.
- Organizations must give people the option to anonymize and/or pseudonymize their personal information.
- There are procedures for the collection of solicited personal information
- There are procedures for dealing with unsolicited information.
- There are certain situations that require organizations to notify of the collected personal information.
- Organizations can use or disclose personal information under specific circumstances.
- May only use or disclose personal information for direct marketing purposes (if certain conditions are met).
- Must take measures to protect cross-border (i.e. overseas) before disclosure of personal information.
- Correct policies for adoption of a government related identifier of an individual as its own identifier, or use or disclose a government related identifier of an individual.
- Must take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information collected is accurate, up to date, and complete. There must also be reasonable steps to ensure all personal information that is used or disclosed is accurate, up to date, complete, and relevant.
- Every organization must take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, and loss, and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. Organizations are obliged to destroy or de-identify personal information in certain circumstances.
- If an individual requests their personal information, organizations must give them access to all information that is being held about them (unless specific exemptions apply).
- Organisations have a right to update and correct any personal information it holds on a person.
For more information, please review the Australian Privacy Policies.
How to Stay Compliant with Australian Laws
With more and more sensitive information being collected by businesses, knowing how to handle it properly is a critical step to staying compliant with Australian law. The way a business handles this information can not only result in unwanted damage to a business’ reputation, but it can also result in serious legal consequences.
To ensure your business stays compliant, here are a few best practices to implement to ensure you stay compliant:
- Design and organise a security policy that fits the type of personal data you hold and understand the harm that may result due to a security breach
- Be clear about which person in your business is responsible for ensuring information security is being upheld and maintained.
- Make sure to implement both digital and physical security measures at your business and back it up with robust policies and procedures.
- Train your entire staff on your policies and procedures to ensure 100% compliance.
- Be ready to respond to any breach of security immediately and effectively.
While these are straightforward suggestions to comply with Australian law, not all business seems to be implementing such best practices. According to the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey in 2017, about half of Australians do not regularly shred documents (50%).
Your business must use a document shredding service who can guarantee that your documents and sensitive information will be destroyed in a way that protects you while abiding by the Privacy Act.
Who Uses Document Shredding Services?
The best way to stay compliant with local laws is by using a trusted document shredding service to prevent the loss and theft of sensitive information.
Here is a list of different industries and professions that rely on document shredding services to keep their business secure.
By Industry
Education
Every educational organization creates, collects, and stores an enormous amount of personal and private information. Even though most of this information is stored digitally, there are numerous times documents must be printed and stored in document form.
Report cards, job applications, and performance reviews are just a few of the documents that get stored in hard copy.
To ensure the protection of any personally identifiable information of students, staff, and administrative personnel, using a document shredding service is not only good business practice, but it’s also a highly-regulated requirement to ensure compliance with privacy laws in Australia.
Security Breaches to Educational Services
More than 185 security breaches were reported in the education sector in 2017 (Source)
Human error accounted for more than 35% of data breaches (Source)
Consequences to Educational Services
Security breaches resulted in 15 million records being stolen
The average cost of a data breach is more than $7 million
(Source)
Financial Services
Businesses in the financial sector receive high-volumes of sensitive information from their clients. To ensure the integrity and reputation of these organizations, having world-class data protection policies and practices are a necessity.
In June 2019, the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released a report that showed the financial sector was the second-largest (17%) source of data breaches. Of the 42 reported breaches in the financial sector:
- 21% were due to malicious or criminal attack
- 18% were due to human error
- 3% were due to a faulty system
The financial sector has a high risk for criminals to expose any weaknesses in an organization to gain an advantage. With breaches being reported by high-profile companies each quarter, financial services require up-to-date credentials, processes, and protocols to collect, store and destroy confidential information safely.
Security Breaches to Financial Services
- Financial services saw a 937% increase in cyber breaches from 2015 to 2016
- Approx. 200 million records were stolen in 2016
- Across all industries, financial services had 65% more attacks than any other industry
(Source)
Consequences to Financial Services
- Financial services nearly a 2% decrease in stock price
- It took more than 71 days to recover from a security breach
- Some companies lost up to 3% of customers due to a security breach
(Source)
Government & Public Services
Government and public services are expected to be using industry-best practices when it comes to securing documents. These organizations are dependent by the public to provide essential government services and often require highly sensitive information to deliver such services.
Any government and public service must follow legislation and regulations as well as implement security practices and policies to ensure the utmost security of people’s information.
Security Breaches to Government & Public Services
- 35% of data breaches are due to human error (Source)
- More than 200,000 records are lost or stolen every hour (Source)
- 95% of data breached records came from government, retail, and technology in 2016 (Source)
Consequences to Government & Public Services
- Only 26% of people believe government organizations are able to protect personal information at a high level (Source)
- More than 50,000 Australians and 5000 federal public servants had their personal information exposed in 2017 (Source)
- It took an average of 324 days to identify and resolve a data breach in the public sector (Source)
Healthcare
Every healthcare service must safeguard their patients’ personal information. Whether it’s a hospital or a member of an independent network of healthcare professionals, there are strict requirements and obligations for the collection, storage, and the destruction of both personal and confidential information.
Data breaches are a serious concern in the healthcare industry which can be due to accidental disclosure of patient data, lost paperwork, or malicious attacks to IT systems. Patients demand that their healthcare providers are using high-security measures to ensure their medical records are protected from getting in the hands of the public.
Security Breaches to Healthcare Services
- The FBI says medical records are 10x more valuable than credit card information (Source)
- More than 1 million records exposed or stolen in 2016 (Source)
Consequences to Healthcare Services
- Healthcare data breaches have the highest cost per record, $408 per record, than any other industry
- There were more than 1 million records exposed or stolen in 2016
- Data breaches in the healthcare sector saw a 4% loss in clients
(Source)
Hotels & Hospitality
The hotel and hospitality industry sees a high amount of data breaches, exposing credit card information and other sensitive information from travellers. When guest records are left unattended, this creates a best-case-scenario for theft opportunities which can disrupt customer trust and lead to a major drop in customer loyalty.
According to the Trustwave Global Security Report, the hospitality industry is the fourth largest to experience a data breach incident. This includes both large chains as well as small providers of hospitality services.
Security Breaches to Hotels & Hospitality Services
- 74% of hotels do not have data breach protection (Source)
- 500 million people were affected by Marriott Hotels’ data breach which exposed personal data, such as credit card information (Source)
Consequences to Hotel & Hospitality Services
- Data breaches cost more than $113 per capita in the hospitality industry (Source)
- 70% of consumers don’t think hotels are investing enough in the protection of customer data (Source)
Insurance
Insurance companies and insurance brokers receive a high volume of sensitive customer data. To ensure good business, they must provide a high-level of protection to give their clients peace of mind while ensuring policies to prevent loss, theft, or damage of assets and data.
There are many documents that are created and filed in the insurance industry. This makes document shredding a vital component to the safety and security of their client data as well as their business’ reputation. Having a document shredding procedure helps to keep information safe and secure from threats and risk of any information being breached.
Security Breaches to Insurance Services
- In the past 5 years, more than 1.2 million documents were lost in the insurance industry (Source)
- Average cost of a data breach is $7 million (Source)
Consequences to Insurance Services
- On average, it took more than 47 days to recover from a data breach
- The insurance industry saw a 5.67% decrease in stock due to data breaches
(Source)
Legal
Legal firms and practitioners of law are obligated to safeguard their clients’ information. It’s a requirement of the professional and requires strict measures to ensure confidential and private information remains safe.
Unfortunately, recent breaches to law firms have led to scrutiny in the way a firm collects, stores, and destroys their information. While some law firms have taken added precautions in the way they destroy their documents, some law firms have not.
The types of documents that end up stolen, misplaced, or lost include highly sensitive information such as financial reports, client cases, payroll information, and more. If these documents fall into the wrong hands, law firms could be at risk of fines, lost clients, and a damaged reputation.
Security Breaches to Legal Services
- 22% of law firms reported a data breach
- 40% of law firms did not have a policy to manage retention of data/information
(Source)
Consequences to Legal Services
- 38% of law firms reported a loss in billable hours
- 34% of law firms reported a substantial fee to correct a data breach
(Source)
Real Estate
Identity theft and fraud are a high-concern for real estate companies which is why document shredding can help to destroy any loose documents from getting into the wrong hands.
Property managers have access to a significant amount of personally identifiable information (PII) about customers and tenants contained in leases, rental applications, credit reports, etc. This data is valuable to criminals seeking to steal identities or sell data on the black market.
For both commercial and consumer real estate, firms are becoming likely targets to obtain personal and financial information. In every property transaction, highly-sensitive information is being exchanged from both the buyer and the previous owner. This creates a unique opportunity for a criminal to access key data to benefit illegally.
Instead of discarding old documents in the trash, the best way to destroy contracts and certified real estate transactions is by using a document shredding service.
Security Breaches to Real Estate Services
- 30% of real estate firms experience a security breach
- 50% of real estate firms say they’re not prepared to prevent a security attack
(Source)
Consequences to Real Estate Services
- 90% of real estate firms say reputational damages are the greatest concern after a security breach
- 51% of real estate firms believe external third parties had too much access to information (leaving their company exposed and vulnerable)
(Source)
By Role & Responsibility
Human Resources
Human Resources are required to have access to sensitive information about a business, its employees, and its daily operations. Although many businesses rely on digital solutions to create and store information, the average employee generates 10,000 documents per year.
In general, about 45% (almost half!) of all pages printed at a business is eventually thrown in the trash. Document shredding services help HR professionals swiftly manage and reduce the collection of unnecessary documents.
Potential Risks to Your Business
- Average maintenance for every 12 filing cabinets requires 1 additional employee
- Estimated that every misfiled document in a filing cabinet costs a company $125; a lost document costs between $350 to $700
- Large companies can lose a new document every 12 seconds
(Source)
Information Technology Professionals
IT professionals are supposed to provide the central core to a companies’ asset protection. From system networks to database security, an IT professional is responsible for keeping intruders out and confidential information secure.
Although the majority of an IT professionals role is to maintain firewalls and security infrastructure, they often have access to other information available physically at a location or carried off-site.
Having a document shredding procedure ensures that all sensitive information and data are properly destroyed and unavailable for a malicious attack. If your business relies on any third-party IT services, designing privacy policy and protocols must include their access, as well as restriction, to your business’ confidential information.
Potential Risks to Your Business
- 48% of companies allow employees to keep confidential documents in their home
- 68% of people don’t even know what or where their company’s confidential information is located
- 56% of companies don’t educate their employees about protecting confidential information
(Source)
C-Level Executives
C-Level Executives are continually sifting through sensitive information at their business. Shareholders, employees, and customers provide highly sensitive information which requires a high-degree of protection and security to prevent the loss of business interests, customer information, proprietary information, and more.
Unfortunately, C-Level Executives pose a high-threat and are a target for potential attackers. In order to ensure the protection of their assets, C-Level Executives can add a layer of security by relying on a trusted document shredding service to destroy any proprietary, confidential or personal information securely.
Potential Risks to Your Business
- Average total cost of a data breach is $3.92 million
- Average size of a data breaches sees more than 25,757 records compromised
- Average cost of a data breach exceeds $7 million in fines, penalties and lost revenue
(Source)
Certified Professional Accountants
Accountants help to manage the financial assets of a business. They have open access to all the facts and figures that make up the monetary value of a business. This often includes customer information, sales sheets, and other information that uncover the financial stability and fiscal growth, which should always be confidential.
Providing accountants access to business-sensitive information requires strict protocols to ensure data and documents remain secure. While digital security can include firewalls and policies that prevent any company data from leaving the office, there is often little thought regarding physical documents that are created, stored and used by accountants.
Every year, businesses print thousands of confidential documents to create reports to share with corporate decision-makers, managers, and third-party providers. Having the right document management policy, which must include document destruction is a necessity to maintain a secure business environment.
Potential Risks to Your Business
- 58% of malicious attacks occur by insiders within the financial sector
- More than 200 million records were stolen in 2016
(Source)
By Business Size
Large & Medium
Both large and medium-sized companies collect and store a high volume of information. The types of documents these companies keep in storage may include:
- Bank account reports
- Business reports
- Employee records
- Financial information
- HR Records
- Insurance policy information
- Intellectual property
- Invoices and billing receipts
- Job applications
- Merchant information and accounts
- Payroll records
- Proprietary information
- Purchase orders and customer information
- Sales tax documents
- Tax records
If any of this information gets into the hands of a malicious attacker, the result can be a multi-million dollar set back to the business. With the number of documents that can accumulate each quarter, outsourcing the secure destruction of documents is both cost-effective and efficient for medium to large businesses.
Security Risks to Small & Medium-Sized Businesses
- 20% of all data breaches were due to an unknown or unaccounted number of compromised data records
- 65% of data breach incidents involved identity theft
- More than 15 billion data records have been exposed since 2013
- 25 million records were compromised or exposed every day (that’s 291 records every second)
(Source)
Tips for Choosing a Document Shredding Service
There a significant number of data breaches due to human error. Some may be due to accidental disclosure from internal personnel or malicious intent from a third-party service provider.
In order to keep your business secure, be sure to consider the following when choosing a document shredding service.
Company Hiring Process
Check to see if the company’s hiring process uses rigorous training and background checks. Some companies require their employees to submit a police check before being considered for a job. This is important because their staff will be handling your confidential documents.
Focus on Data Security Compliance
Does the company you’re considering understand Australian law to protect your personal data? If a document shredding company is to maintain your business’ reputation, they should be knowledgeable and up-to-date on personal data regulations and implement industry best practices.
Use Secure Equipment
Any shredding company that will have access to your sensitive information should never allow your documents to be unprotected or exposed. All confidential information should be stored in proper containers with the appropriate locks to prevent any theft or loss.
Certificate of Destruction
Be sure the document shredding company provides you with a Certificate of Destruction for proof that your documents were securely destroyed. This adds a layer of accountability and integrity for both your business and the shredding company. Also, in the event that your business is audited, you will have a paper trail to support your proactive approach to information security.
Considerate to the Environment
Both companies and consumers are becoming aware about their footprint on the environment. Do you part by choosing a shredding company that not only securely destroys your documents but also recycles the waste. There’s no additional fee for making a positive impact on the environment.
5 Ways Document Shredding Services Benefits Your Business
Document shredding is a necessity for protecting sensitive business information, client records, and employee files. If privacy protection is your top priority, using a professional document shredding service can help keep your business secure.
From reducing liability to increasing productivity, here are five ways that document shredding can secure your business and support your daily operations.
1. Increase Productivity
Relying on an office shredder is safer and more efficient than throwing away documents in the trash. However, this process still takes time and someone has to insert documents into the shredder one by one.
Shredding a stack of documents can take several minutes to a few hours, depending on the number of documents involved. Doing the shredding yourself involves:
- Removing paper clips and staples
- Straightening sheets of paper
- Cleaning up paper scraps on the floor
- Disposing of your shredded paper
- Maintaining your shredder blades
If you continually use a paper shredder in-house, you are paying an employee to use valuable time shredding documents instead of focusing on increasing revenue for your business.
A professional shredding service allows your business to keep staff productive with their time. With Shred2U, you’ll receive collection containers within your office allowing you to safely discard documents which will be securely removed and shredded on your behalf. The entire destruction process is handled for you, enabling your team to remain productive and your business profitable.
2. Save Money
Having an internal shredding program at your company can be expensive. Your costs may include:
- Investing in a quality shredder
- Buying disposal bags
- Ongoing maintenance
- Paying staff to shred documents
- Replacing broken or worn out parts
- Additional utility expenses
By outsourcing your document shredding, you can expect a fixed rate to save money for your business. With Shred2U, you’ll receive shredding containers in your office which are emptied for you on a scheduled basis. You can customize your schedule to ensure your documents are handled according to your needs.
3. Reduced Liability
You have a legal obligation to maintain privacy standards for your business’ sensitive information. Australian Privacy Law states that businesses must “take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify personal information that is no longer required.”
Having a dedicated document shredding service to handle the destruction and de-identification of your information reduced potential liability risks for your business. With Shred2U, we take your business security seriously and follow strict protocols to ensure your information is destroyed and your business remains safe.
4. Securing Your Reputation
Don’t jeopardize your business with a security breach which can damage your reputation. If your documents aren’t properly destroyed, you create a risk that allows sensitive information to fall into the wrong hands𑁋compromising your customers’ trust, exposing your employees’ personal information, and potentially creating a risk for your entire community.
One small privacy breach can lead to an unwanted front-page news story.
Using a trusted document shredding service can add an extra layer of protection to safeguard your business. At Shred2U, we ensure all employees are properly trained and undergo an extensive background check to ensure they are compliant with Australian law. During the process of destruction, your information follows a strict chain of procedures, a recorded destruction process, security compliant vehicles to transport your records to a highly secure shredding facility.
5. Environmental Benefits
More companies are implementing an environmental approach to the way they operate their business. Properly destroying your document is important and so is recycling your paper to contribute to a healthier environment.
A professional shredding company incorporates the process of destruction and recycling without compromising confidentiality. At Shred2U, both shredding and recycling take place within a secure facility that is protected by security technology and strict procedures. Not only can you ensure that your documents are shredded safely, but you can also make an impact on waste by properly recycling documents at your business.
Regularly Scheduled Document Shredding for You
With Shred2U, your business receives secure shredding services to destroy and recycle all your documents safely using our high-security bins and bags. With a regularly scheduled service, you can operate smoothly known your business’ is protected and your documents destroyed.
Shred2U is perfect for both business and personal use, Shred2U provides:
- Large or small volume shredding solutions
- Documents contained with a security seal
- Weekly or monthly pickup
- Onsite or in-office pickup
- Secure shredding and recycling of all documents
- 100% customization to suit your needs
Shred2U securely destroys your documents and records with confidence. We are in full compliance with current Australian standards and offer a custom shredding solution without any contracts or long-term commitments.
Shred2U Keeps Your Business Secure
Shred2U can help you with the secure removal of all kinds of documents. From outdated merchants and materials to signage and point of sale documents, our custom document shredding services are the best choice for your business.
Here are just a few of the benefits you’ll enjoy:
- Peace of mind. We safely destroy all personal and business documents so you can focus on what’s important to you.
- Fast Delivery. Place an order today and you’ll receive your bin or bag by the end of the next business day.
- High-Security Clearance. We follow strict security protocols to ensure your sensitive information remains secure.
- No Minimum Contract. There’s no contract, you can use Shred2U based entirely on your business needs.
- Paper Recycled After Destruction. We believe in doing good to our adequately and properly recycle all documents after they have been destroyed.