3 ‘Document Insecurities’ and How to Prevent Them From Impacting Your Business
For most medical, law, financial and other firms, information security has become much more cyber-focused these days; however, the task of managing sensitive materials properly is not just a virtual one.
A recent assessment conducted by the Government Accountability Office indicated that a quarter of information security incidents are ‘non-cyber’, or paper-related. Surprisingly, one of the largest threats to information security is the mishandling of sensitive paper documents.
Failing to follow proper information security procedures compromises your integrity as a business and can end in a data breach that will ultimately affect your assets and employee information security, as well as damage customer relationships.
Listed below are 3 facts about ‘paper insecurity’, and preventative measures you can take to avoid paperless data breaches:
1. The ‘Paperless’ Myth
Usually, companies that have made the switch to paperless rely on old habits such as keeping a physical second copy or backup despite their paperless status. In fact, over half of any given company’s sensitive information is on paper, according to research by the Ponemon Institute.
Paper insecurity arises when organizations don’t keep documents in secure storage areas and leave paper backups without encryption.
2. The Danger of Dumpster Divers
We’ve previously written about the risks modern-day dumpster diving has in regards to identity theft. This new breed of identity-theft criminal targets a variety of information that is carelessly thrown into the garbage, from sales receipts to entire personal or professional documents.
Never throw out intact documentation, as this is another cause of paper insecurity. Instead, invest in a secure container delegated for the disposal of confidential documents
3. Preventing the Risk of Insecurity
The primary cause of paper insecurity is waiting to shred documents. Nearly one-third of the respondents in the previously mentioned Ponemon research stated that paper documents were most at risk for a data breach while awaiting disposal or shredding.
Seeking out a professional shredding company is the most efficient solution to prevent the risk of paper insecurity within your medical, law, and financial practices.
EcoShredding specializes in mobile document destruction. We offer daily, weekly, monthly, and one-time purge service packages. Our experience and expertise in legal document destruction separate us from other shredding service providers.
We’ll help you determine the most economical schedule and make sure your business complies with legislation. Even if you only need a one-time purge, we can handle everything from just a few small boxes to several-thousand-pound boxes.
