SELECTSHRED | 5 THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT SECURE DOCUMENT SHREDDING

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An asset is defined as a resource with economic value that an individual or entity owns or controls with the expectation that it will provide future benefit. Keep your confidential information as your asset. Don’t allow it to become someone else’s asset. The confidential information in your custody needs to be protected as much as any other asset in your company because this information in the wrong hands can be misused for the future gain of someone else.

The following are 5 things to consider about secure document shredding:

Secure document shredding is not a one-time event – it’s an ongoing process.

1. Develop a relationship with your shredding company – it’s not about the lowest quote.
2. Know the qualifications of your shredding company. Is your shredding company NAID AAA Certified? Do personnel undergo criminal background checks and drug screening? Does your shredding company have appropriate insurance?
3. Determine whether your documents are shredded on-site/at your location. Find out whether your confidential information is transported away for shredding elsewhere at a later date.
4. Confidential information to be destroyed is not trash. Confidential information must be protected even upon its disposal.

Identity theft, dumpster diving, corporate espionage, intellectual property theft, and trade secret misappropriation are frightening words that can be your reality if proper attention is not given to safeguarding the confidential information in your custody. Do not place any printed material in the trash. You do not have legal ownership of the trash that has been put out for pick up. You only have ownership of the liability for a breach that results when information is retrieved from the trash.

Protect yourself and keep your clients’ information protected by using a third-party professional document destruction partner to destroy your sensitive information in a timely manner. Destroying confidential documents should not be considered as only a one-time event but should be an ongoing service to make sure that your information is securely destroyed as soon as possible.

The following link from the Federal Trade Commission – Bureau of Consumer Protection Business Center Blog shows the importance of having procedures in place to monitor what your service providers are doing on your behalf. http://www.business.ftc.gov/blog/2014/01/50th-data-security-settlement-offers-golden-opportunity-check-your-practices

For the businesses and residences in Fort Pierce, Port St. Lucie, Stuart, Palm City, Jensen Beach, Rio, Hobe Sound, Port Salerno, Sewall’s Point, Jupiter, North Palm Beach, Jupiter Island, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens, Okeechobee, and Vero Beach, remember that no data (printed or digital) is too insignificant for a third party vendor to destroy because the risks are too great not to do so.

Richard Kinkead & Gloria Kinkead

SelectShred, Inc.

T: (772) 463-3166

info@selectshred.com

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SELECTSHRED | FIVE THINGS TO CONSIDER IN CHOOSING A SECURE SHREDDING SERVICE

With the desire of many companies, medical facilities, and government agencies to become paperless, we realize that everyday someone is thinking about shredding paper with confidential information. From the residential customer to the commercial customer throughout the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach that seems to be a common thread. The great challenge remains for the customer and the right shredding company to connect—to find each other. With so many options of shredding companies, it is difficult to know how to choose the right company, to get the right price, and the right customer service that you deserve.

The following are five things to consider in choosing a secure shredding service:

1. Develop a Relationship. Even for a few minutes, it is worth the time and effort to meet with the representative from your prospective shredding service or have an extensive phone discussion. This will help you to understand the work ethic of the shredding company and enable the shredding company to develop a precise understanding of your needs.
2. Know Your Rights as a Customer. You should know how your confidential information will be destroyed, where it will be destroyed, who will destroy it, and when it will be destroyed. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure that the confidential in your charge has been securely handled in a timely manner by responsible persons.
3. Don’t fall for the lowest quote. The lowest quote is not necessarily a bad thing—it can be the result of a relationship or referral situation when the need for a special courtesy needs to be extended. If the lowest quote is just to do the job without genuine concern for customer service and for how your confidential information is handled and disposed of, there might be a cause for concern.
4. Use A NAID AAA Certified Company. Not all shredding companies are NAID AAA Certified but a shredding company that chooses to be NAID AAA Certified operates with strict industry standards. The individuals who are handling your confidential information have undergone initial and random drug/substance abuse screening, initial and periodic criminal record searches, driver record reviews, employee training, access control, and other factors required for NAID AAA Certification.
5. Get a Certificate of Destruction. The certificate of destruction is your legal record from a third party document destruction service. It is documentation that you have done everything you could do to safeguard your sensitive information. It is your proof of compliance for federal regulations such as FACTA, GLBA, and HIPAA.

Although we strive to be paperless, shredding confidential information will always remain a tool to fight identity theft and safeguard sensitive information. To help accomplish this important service, the ability to partner with a secure document destruction company is a must.

Richard Kinkead & Gloria Kinkead

SelectShred, Inc.

T: (772) 463-3166

info@selectshred.com

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SELECTSHRED – FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION PARTNERSHIP

Having a document destruction company means that you have a third-party partner in your ongoing effort to fight identity theft, safeguard confidential information, protect individual privacy, and protect trade secrets and proprietary information. A secure, convenient, and economical document destruction service is the ally that you need to make sure that shredding your confidential documents will be given the same importance as any other service that is required to keep your business safe, secure, and profitable.

The following are five things to know about your document destruction partnership:

1. To know how your confidential information was destroyed; to know where it was destroyed; to know who destroyed it; and to know when it was destroyed.
2. To know that the legal chain of custody is not broken because your confidential information is destroyed at your location. It is not transported to a remote facility for sorting and destruction at a later date.
3. To know that you fulfilled your obligations to protect the confidential information in your custody, from its proper retention through its responsible destruction, by using a NAID AAA certified company.
4. To know that you are in compliance with federal regulations such as FACTA, GLBA, and HIPAA by having a secure document destruction program in place, including receiving a certificate of destruction for your record.
5. To know that you have an environmentally friendly policy because all of your shredded paper is recycled into new paper products and the shredded paper is not placed in the landfill. Your confidential information is shredded first and then recycled.

Building a relationship with your shredding provider will go a long way toward avoiding identity theft and information theft. Your shredding service is a necessary professional partnership. It will keep your business secure and prevent your confidential information from getting into the wrong hands. Never consider shredding documents as getting rid of trash. You should safeguard the confidential information in your custody in the same manner that you would protect any other asset.

Richard Kinkead & Gloria Kinkead

SelectShred, Inc.

T: (772) 463-3166

info@selectshred.com

INFORMATION DESTRUCTION—SHREDDING PAPER AND BEYOND

In addition to shredding paper with confidential information for protecting privacy and fighting identity theft, individuals and businesses are also charged with a lot more than destroying paper in the digital age. Computer hard drives, copier hard drives, cell phones, optical media (CDs/DVDs), thumb drives, digital tapes, memory chips, and credit/debit cards all need to be physically destroyed to avoid retrieval of the information contained on these media.

According to an investigative report done in 2010 by CBS News, it was reported that “Nearly every digital copier built since 2002 contains a hard drive — like the one on your personal computer — storing an image of every document scanned, copied, or emailed by the machine.” Many people understand that paper with confidential information, credit cards, and computer hard drives must be destroyed but many never think about the other media, like the copier hard drives that store personal or sensitive information.

Companies are charged with safeguarding all the confidential information in their custody. Regardless of the media that contains confidential information, the same level of accountability for protecting that information is expected due to federal privacy laws. When protecting information, it is important to think beyond shredding paper with confidential information to destroying other media containing sensitive information. Proper disposal of all media must be met.

HHS Settles with Health Plan in Photocopier Breach Case

Under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Affinity Health Plan, Inc. will settle potential violations of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules for $1,215,780. OCR’s investigation indicated that Affinity impermissibly disclosed the protected health information of up to 344,579 individuals when it returned multiple photocopiers to a leasing agent without erasing the data contained on the copier hard drives. In addition, the investigation revealed that Affinity failed to incorporate the electronic protected health information stored in copier’s hard drives in its analysis of risks and vulnerabilities as required by the Security Rule, and failed to implement policies and procedures when returning the hard drives to its leasing agents.

Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. HHS.gov.

DID YOU KNOW? It is a company’s legal responsibility to properly dispose of any sensitive information stored on its digital copiers. (Source: Federal Trade Commission.) Follow this link to learn more:

http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus43-copier-data-security

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