This Executive Report provides seven factors that every executive should know about information destruction and three key strategies to improved information destruction. It also provides sample Records Management Procedures that may be customized for any size company or organization.

Highlights of the report include:

• All organizations should have policies and procedures in place to assure confidentiality of information as it is destroyed. Failure to document and formalize policies or to communicate via an official program often leads to ad hoc behaviors and exposes the organization to undue risk and cost.
• Identity theft was made a federal crime in 1998, with the passage of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act
• FACTA Disposal Rule Compliance: Under the Disposal Rule, businesses are now compelled to assess the effectiveness of security procedures related to information disposal to meet federal compliance guidelines. Failure to do so can have grave consequences.
• Security principles or checkpoints should be applied throughout all phases of the information’s life cycle. Many organizations have simplified the process by mandating a “shred all” approach, which takes the guesswork out of information protection by requiring that all paper records, whether destroyed from active state or from archived storage, be shredded before disposal.
• Secure Shredding: Savvy organizations are responding to successfully address the challenges of paper destruction.