Most businesses will have some sort of sensitive documentation on file that either relates to themselves or contains the data of a customer. It is vital that documents like this do not fall into the wrong hands and so when they are no longer needed, they have to be properly destroyed.
Some businesses are still choosing to do this, without realising that there are some significant security risks in doing so. Here, we take a look at what they are and how to avoid them.
Blog Contents:
1. Equipment Issues
We all know that the biggest barrier to carrying out any task is a technical glitch, and document shredders can pose a number of issues. They can fail, jam or overheat when faced with heavy demand, and so documents can be left intact and un-shredded until the equipment is repaired or a new one has been sourced. The longer these documents are left lying around, the greater the risk of them being lost, stolen or copied.
2. Strip Shredding
We tend to assume that shredding is the perfect way to destroy a document, but many office shredders simply cut the paper into vertical strips which can be easily pieced back together, meaning that the process is not as secure as you might think. If documents have the ability to be reconstructed, this poses a huge security risk and potential data breach.
The process of cross shredding cuts paper into much smaller pieces that resemble confetti, so it is almost impossible to reconstruct them. Cross shredding is not generally found in office equipment and is usually only available with outside shredding companies who have access to these industrial tools.
3. Time Consuming
Document shredding and document destruction can be seen as administrative tasks which may not be taken seriously. Shredding can be extremely time consuming and on average, it takes an employee five hours to shred 23 kg worth of paper documents.
During this time, employee’s patience can run thin, and documents may not be securely destroyed which can lead to documents being reconstructed and available to potential criminals.
Additionally, a professional shredding provider can effectively destroy 23kg of paper documents in just over 10 minutes.
4. Compliance
Many businesses decide to shred their documents because they believe that this makes them compliant in the eyes of GDPR laws, but this is not actually the case. However, you can be protected by a Certificate of Destruction from a shredding provider, as this is viewed to provide the necessary proof that the documents have been destroyed.
5. Certificates of Destruction
Certain industries now require documented proof of destruction to ensure that their documents have securely been destroyed beyond reconstruction. A third-party shredding company ensures that you always receive a document of destruction which can be shared with your clients so they can be rest assured that you are meeting their requirements.
If you shred documents internally, you do not have the proof that the document has been destroyed and this can cause further issues if your business is facing issues regarding a data breach or privacy violation.
6. Personnel Issues
When you require documentation to be shredded, you will be putting it in the hands of an employee. This requires a high level of trust, but the task is often not put in the hands of the senior people within the company, and so the level of confidentiality that can be expected is limited. It also means that sensitive documents may also be visible to a member of staff who might not normally have that level of clearance.
7. Office Shredders are not Indestructible
Off the shelf document shredders may not be able to handle staples, binders, paperclips or any other non-paper materials. Hard materials can at the least cause a jam in the mechanism but could also damage the shredder beyond repair.
A broken shredder can lead to sensitive documents left lying around waiting to be destroyed and this is where they are vulnerable to being seen by unauthorised members of staff. When you select an external secure shredding service, your documents are safely transported and destroyed within a timely manner, so they don’t become vulnerable to prying eyes.
8. Fire Hazards
When shredding documents, this generates a lot of heat and produces large quantities of flammable paper. When heavily using a standard office shredder, they are prone to overheating and this can cause them to ignite and the paper below the shredder to also ignite.
Shredders should be stored in a well-ventilated area and not surrounded by other potentially flammable materials as this increases the health and safety risk.
9. Disposing of Waste
Once you have shredded your documents, you might think that your job is done, but you still need to get rid of the shred waste that you have created. It can be tempting to simply put these into the usual paper recycling bins, but this is not a secure way to dispose of them. It is unlikely that your bins are kept under lock and key, so it is easy for someone to gain access to the waste.
Additionally, criminals can rummage through waste bins outside your premises during closed hours and specifically look for confidential documents that contain sensitive information that they can use. Documents that have not been destroyed into confetti like pieces are perfect for criminals as they can be pieced together and used in a criminal way.
10. Call in the Professionals
It is easy to see why in-office document shredding carries risks, and so it is important to look for an alternative. You can now call on the services of professional document shredding companies, who will deal with everything for you using industrial machines, ensuring that all documents are unrecoverable and disposed of safely and the whole process is carried out with the highest levels of confidentiality, giving you the peace of mind that everything has been dealt with properly.
Disposing of documentation properly is imperative for the security of your business and those who work with it. In-office shredding does not provide the security that you need and so it is important to find a more professional route.
Shred your documents securely with RADS
Here at RADS Storage, we can securely shred any of your unwanted documents, from waste paper, to CD’s and DVD’s. So if you’re interested in our document shredding services, please contact our team.