Digital documents have made a lot of business processes easier than they used to be back when everything was done on paper. Cloud-based systems have allowed businesses to access data and tools from anywhere, at any time. Tech advancements have changed the way we create and store information—but they shouldn’t change everything about the way your business approaches data security. Even if your business primarily works with digital documents and prints out paper versions rarely, your physical data security and document shredding protocols are as important as ever.
Document Shredding is Still Urgent—Here’s Why
Businesses are increasingly focused on protecting their digital data security, as they should be. Putting a lot of money and energy into shoring up your digital systems but getting sloppy with document shredding is like installing security flood lights and cameras in your front yard and leaving your side door wide open. Document shredding is going to be a critical part of your business’s data security policy for as long as your business uses paper documents in any capacity. Technology will change but human error, theft and fraud will always be threats to any data that your business keeps on paper.
Paper documents are especially risky for your business because they’re so portable. A visitor who’s in your office briefly can’t steal your digital data easily but could potentially snag a sensitive document out of a recycling bin or off a desk without anyone noticing.
Documents are also more vulnerable to theft or loss once they leave your building. Think about the surge in car break-ins that have been happening in western Massachusetts and around the country this year. Is there any chance that any of your company employees are driving around with old work documents in their trunks? Thieves will ransack cars and grab anything that looks like it could be valuable, like documents including data that can be used for identity theft. Suddenly your business could have a potentially serious data breach to deal with, all because of a random car break-in outside an employee’s home.
Compliance is another key point that should drive your business’s approach to document security, for both paper and digital documents. Following a document shredding policy remains an important part of maintaining compliance with data destruction laws and/or industry-specific requirements that govern your business. If a data breach involving your documents ever happens, or your data security standards are examined as part of an audit, you’ll want to be able to explain all the security measures your business takes to protect its sensitive data.
Do Your Data Security Protocols Address Digital Documents?
It’s advisable for every business to review its policies and protocols around data security frequently, at least annually. Here are some of the things that should be reviewed and/or added to your data security and data destruction policies:
- Best practices for using any new technology or platform that your business has adopted since the last time you updated these policies. Give employees all the information they need to use new technology without sacrificing your business’s data security.
- Printing guidelines for digital documents. The fewer physical copies of sensitive documents that are floating around, the better. If there are certain documents in your digital systems that you’d rather employees don’t print out without permission, make that known.
- Shredding guidelines for any physical documents. Make sure your document shredding policy is up to date and that employees are clear about where sensitive documents should be collected before they’re collected by your shredding service.
- An updated record retention policy. Employees should never have to make their own judgment calls about whether to keep or destroy certain sensitive documents. A record retention policy sets clear guidelines about what kinds of records should be kept and for how long.
- Data breach protocols. What are the steps your business will follow after a breach happens? What measures should be taken if the breach involves digital documents accessed from your servers, and what measures should be taken if the breach involved theft or loss of physical document? Make sure all those contingency plans are written down so your business can take swift action to minimize the damage after a breach.
Need Help Securely Destrying Physical and Digital Documents?
The way your business uses cloud-based systems and digital documents might evolve as technology changes, but you’ll always need a reliable shredding service. Northeast Data Destruction strives to make document shredding incredibly easy for our clients. We can provide all your collection containers, arrange secure pickup services on a scheduled or as-needed basis and provide proof of destruction once your materials have been destroyed at our NAID “AAA” shredding facility. Please reach out with any questions or concerns you might have about secure document shredding—contact me today.