Choosing a Shredding Partner: It’s a Matter of Trust
Identifying the key components of a secure, efficient, cost-effective shredding service is an essential part of doing business in the information age. Here’s how to start the selection process.
It’s a sobering fact: This year thus far, more than 23 million records have been breached in 392 separately reported cases. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer education and advocacy group, creates this report based on information from public and private sector organizations obliged to disclose such incidents by federal, state or local law.
These numbers are even more mind-boggling when you consider that just a single instance of unauthorized access to information can bring severe consequences—among them damage to your brand’s reputation in the marketplace, lost sales, and the prospect of regulatory fines.
That last peril—regulatory penalties—compels your business to comply with, depending on the nature of its business, mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). To mitigate your organization’s risk exposure, you’ll need to develop and maintain a secure shredding program. In a best case scenario, you’ll collaborate with a secure shredding partner.
A carefully chosen secure shredding firm should take on a structured “program-focused” approach—this ensures the proper destruction and the overall security of your sensitive or classified paper-based information from end-to-end. The best firm will also offer a broad range of solutions—whether that means a choice of onsite and offsite secure shredding or services offered on an ongoing or as-needed basis. Such flexibility lets your company choose the most cost-effective way to tackle the document destruction process.
Building Your Dynamic Duo
In choosing a trusted partner for secure shredding services, look for these critical components:
A sense of security. The company should be AAA certified by the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID®). NAID’s standards focus on operational workflow and security. [See: Iron Mountain’s Leadership in Secure Shredding Reflected in Appointment to NAID Certification Review Board and AAA Certification]
An ear to the ground. Your partner’s resident experts should stay abreast of changes in legislative, operational and technical issues. In doing so, they will help your protect your organization against fines and other penalties.
A concern for your resources. A good partner will let you select only what you need, while managing costs and mitigating risk. Its program monitoring tools (online applications are optimal) should give you the power to assess program utilization, reduce costs and improve compliance, as called for by your company’s needs and objectives.
Being at arm’s reach. An effective partner can tackle your thorniest secure shredding challenge while you keep your eye on the ball, working at your core business, operational and mission goals. That said, a partner offering 24/7 access by phone or the Web is the optimal choice.
A green streak. Your ideal partner can help support your organization’s environmental goals by focusing on recycling. A green shredding and recycling program reduces pollution and preserves landfill space while also saving trees, water and oil.
When you and your partner work together to create your company’s secure shredding policies, you’ll reduce risk and increase cost-effectiveness. A trusted partner can also build educational programs to increase awareness, monitor your company’s operations, and advise staffers about legal and/or regulatory requirements. These communications aspects are critical parts of a secure shredding program. Including them can help you mitigate risks as you adapt to the changing realities of business in the highly regulated world of information management.
Scary But True: A Sampling of Recent Data Breaches
The concept of “data breaches” may conjure thoughts of malware, Internet spying and lost laptops. But plenty of security lapses are far less technically sophisticated. In fact, many incidents involve the loss or theft of paper documents—not tapes or disks. These are exactly the kind of breaches that are most easily thwarted by a well-executed secure shredding plan.
As reported by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which collects, tracks and reports on security breaches for the public record, a number of such paper-based incidents have made news this year:
License to steal. Nearly 14,000 documents related to driver’s license and state-identification applications were stolen from two separate state offices in Michigan. The information in peril: names, dates of birth, addresses and, in some cases, Social Security numbers.
A painful medical-records risk. The scene: A dumpster behind the office of a failed eating-disorder clinic near Buffalo, New York. Authorities found 15 to 20 boxes of papers with patient names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, medical complaints, medical diagnoses, treatment information and other health information–a clear violation of HIPAA. When interviewed, the clinic’s former owner lied about the contents of the boxes and was subsequently charged with making false statements to a federal agent.
Cutting corners. When office space in an Iowa prison became an inmates’ barber shop, no one bothered to clean out the desk drawers. As a result, hundreds of inmates had access to the names and Social Security numbers of their prison guards.
Each of these incidents violates some combination of federal, state and local personally identifiable information (PII) laws/mandates. Unfortunately such breaches only scratch the surface of the growing data-breach epidemic. The number of breaches not tracked or made public is likely much higher–all the more reason to put a secure shredding plan into motion.
Do you have questions about secure shredding? Read additional Knowledge Center stories on this subject, or contact Iron Mountain’s consulting services team. You’ll be connected with a knowledgeable product and services specialist who can address your specific challenges.
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