Even Small Businesses Need Document Shredding Services
You own a small business and you enjoy what you do but there never seems to be enough time in the day to do everything you want to get accomplished, let alone do all the things you are required to do. One of the required things to do is Information Security. Regardless of what industry you are in, you have employees, clients, financial records and proprietary information. That information has to be protected and when not needed any more, securely shredded.
What is a Data Breach
A data breach is an event that involves the unauthorized or illegal viewing, access, retrieval or theft of personal, sensitive, confidential or otherwise protected information that has been accessed and/or disclosed in an unauthorized fashion. Data breaches may involve personal health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII), financial records, trade secrets or intellectual property.
One Data Breach Could Put You Out of Business
The severe financial loss and damage to your reputation caused by a breach is devastating for any size company or organization, but particularly for small businesses that probably are not prepared for, or have the means to recover. It’s not only the direct cost of recovery but also the time it takes and potential fines for non- compliance with privacy laws. It could take as long as three years to fully recover and think of the time it takes away from running and growing your business.
Privacy Laws
Size does not matter when it comes to compliance with federal and state privacy laws. All businesses and organizations must be complaint. When it comes to paper records they need to be stored securely and when disposed of done in a way that makes the documents unreadable; that means, secure document shredding is necessary. Failure to comply could result in hefty fines and sanctions.
Here are a few tips when it comes to document shredding
Shred Everything – Surprisingly half of the documents you create and receive in business, contain information in them that privacy laws require they be securely shred. So how do you choose? The answer is you don’t; shred everything. Don’t take chances with making a mistake.
Written Document Destruction Policy
An essential part of information protection is the development of policies and procedures for document shredding. This will help your employees understand exactly what’s required and reduce the chance of an error. The policy should be in writing so each employee can receive a copy. They should read it and you should discuss it with them and have them sign an acknowledgment that they have been trained on the policy.
Documents Should be Kept Secure
Keep document secure at all times. This means locked file rooms, locks on file cabinets and locked containers to hold papers that will soon be shredded. Have a clean desk requirement that makes sure that at the end of every business day, all documents are put away and secured.
Hire a Professional Shredding Service
If you think you can save money and time purchasing a small shredder and doing it yourself, you are wrong. Those personal shredders will only destroy a few sheets of paper at a time if they don’t jam. Think of all the time it will take you or one of your employees to shred the paper. A document destruction company has trucks that are equipped with powerful industrial shredders that will destroy in minutes, what would take you days or weeks to complete on your own.
The Professional Options Offer:
One-time Shredding – When you don’t need document destruction services that often, the professionals have an on-demand service called One-time Shredding. It is a service that allows you to call for shredding only when you need it.
Scheduled Shredding – When your small business needs to destroy business papers frequently, the answer is Scheduled Shredding. The document destruction company will provide you with locking bins or consoles to dispose of your papers in. Following this, they come to your location on a regular schedule to empty and shred the contents of the containers.
Time Shred Services is a local on-site shredding service that provides document destruction to the businesses and residents located in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester and New Jersey. For more information give us a call or visit www.timeshred.com.
By
