Category Archives: Onsite Shredding

4 Steps to Avoid Mistakes in Physical Data Management

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Recently we have been discussing in detail the risks associated with digital devices and cyber security however physical documentation needs to be secure too and there are some measures you can put in place to ensure this is paramount.

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1.      Index your files

The majority of the files that your business will gather over time may never even be used or accessed after a certain length of time. Having an indexing system in place will allow you to keep track of each and every document, when they are received and what purpose they serve for the company. It will be convenient for finding and accessing documents efficiently.

2.      Retention & Disposal Schedules

Included with your indexing system you can schedule each documents lifespan. The recommended maximum time to keep most documentation is seven years however this will depend on the individual document. Therefore, when you index each file add an end date. It will allow you to quickly find anything you need. It will also assist you in removing the clutter of documents you no longer need and keep you compliant with the ‘EU General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR)

3.      Storage

Use document storage boxes which are secure and locked. Taking all of these precautions and then having a filing cabinet which is open and accessible to anyone and everyone will just undermine any security measures you have put in place.

4.      Shredding

Last but not least is your method of destruction once your documents have reached their use by date. You will need to decide what kind of service best suits you; onsite shredding or offsite shredding. Having your secure paper shredding service scheduled regularly can be convenient. Just contact us and we can discuss what option would suit you best.

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Getting Ready for 2020

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2020 is fast approaching. Rather than leaving things to the last minute, now is the time to begin your end of year clear-out. What needs to be shredded and what needs to be kept in storage? As a general rule, older archives past the 7-year date mark should be destroyed. This whole process can be overwhelming and time consuming however in order to keep the procedure as time efficient and simple as possible there are a few questions you should ask yourself.

Office Documents in Boxes
  • What is the type of data?
  • Why do you have it? Do you really need it? Is it easy to get that information again if you need it down the line?
  • Where is it kept? Is it kept in filing cabinets? Or is it digitally saved?
  • When was it acquired? Has it been over 7 years ago? Is it time to remove it from your records?
  • Who has access to it?
Organised documents

Answering these questions should provide you with the necessary solutions you need in order to keep compliant with the GDPR. When asking yourself these questions it is important to consider all forms of data; confidential paper, hard-drives and media devices, or branded products such as business cards or uniforms etc. Once all this is organised it is time to contact your trusted shredding company who can provide you with options for the certified destruction of your data.

The sooner you begin; the sooner you are ready for the new year.

Why I need to Shred – Shredding Company or In-House?

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Why do I need to Shred Data?

On the 25th May 2018 a new law came into play, The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) affecting businesses of all shapes and sizes.

All business, Irish Business or International generate and process data through their operations. This data has to be created, managed and destroyed (i.e. Through a Paper Shredding Service, In-house Shredding and/or Hard-Drive Shredding Service).

The GDPR splits data mainly into two categories;

Personal Data (i.e. information which can directly connect to or identify a living person such as; name, phone number, medical history etc.)

Special Category Personal Data (i.e. personal data in relation to; ethnicity, political/philosophical opinions/beliefs, religion, mental health, criminal records etc.)

Each of the above categories have specific requirements when processing such information. This means it is important to know what category you are processing.

Enforcement Authority

Each EU state has an independent public authority accountable for enforcing the implementation of this regulation. This is the Data Protection Commission in Ireland.

The GDPR harmonized the rules to how data is to be managed in order to protect individuals. The management includes, the gathering/creation of the data through to the final destruction/disposal of the data through a paper shredding service or IT Asset Disposal Service.

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There are serious implications that can occur if a business does not follow the GDPR requirements. It may be a warning or  a large penalty of at least 4% of your annual global turnover or €20 million – whichever is higher. Compliance is essential.

Shredding Service Industry Associations

There are many associations across the world for Shredding Companies to become a member. This provides peace of mind for individuals as the Association can apply guidelines for their members to be compliant with International Legislation.

Length of Time Storing Data Prior to Secure Shredding / Data Erasure

Information must be kept for as little time as possible. It is important to take into account why your company needs to store this data; is there a legal obligation? A system should be put in place with time limits/reviews and updates to out of date information/data.

To summarise, you need to shred/destroy out of date records/files/documents because it is the law. In order to be fully compliant it is invaluable to use a quality certified destruction service that will not only ensure all data is eradicated but will also provide compliance certification for your records. This will be invaluable when proving that your company/business is fulfilling their obligation to the GDPR.

The law is reason enough to shred on its own but how do businesses know what service best suits them? In our upcoming blog posts I will be discussing different types of shredding, what makes the shredding company you choose legally compliant and if onsite or offsite shredding would work best for you?

For Further info – please contact the team at Security in Shredding info@securityinshredding.com

How college students can protect their identity – Presidential Election or not

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While the US presidential election is heating up as it comes to the closing weeks, identity theft is still being committed at seriously high rates.

In this article we will take you away from the US Republic and Democrat debates, campaigns and news to highlight some handy tips for college students to protect their identity. It is more than simply availing of a confidential paper shredding service or completing your document destruction at home with an onsite paper shredding service

Amongst all of the people that are vulnerable of being victim of identity theft, college students are possible the highest risk sample. All young and mature students need to be made aware of this so they are armed with the appropriate information to protect themselves and their identity.

Even with the majority of students across the world tending to be “strapped for cash” this does not dis-incentivise these thieves from attempting to steal their identity. In the majority of cases these thieves only want to take advantage of a clean credit record. Below there some brief points on how students can become aware and safe against identity theft.

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  1. Always ensure that personal sensitive mail is only sent to your personal email address. College emails can be extremely vulnerable to hacking. When your old computers are being replaced, always avail of a hard-drive shredding service where the data bearing hard-drive is securely destroyed and the data is irretrievable.
  1. Store important documents under lock and key. Keep them safe and secure and once you no longer require them always, always have them securely destroyed through a shredding company. Never just throw these document away, there are a number of solutions available to have these document destroyed. Examples would be an onsite paper shredding service, an offsite paper shredding service as long as the service is certified for confidential data destruction service
  1. Never allow other people to borrow your credit card, even if it is a family member. Another handy point is to never be a co-signer for any loans.
  1. Always have up to date anti-virus on your computer devices.
  1. Credit card and debit card statements, review regularly for any suspicious activity.
  1. Only shop on familiar websites. You should always be certain that the business is legitimate.

For any further information upon how to protect your identity please contact one of the Security in Shredding team and visit our website www.securityinshredding.com

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Confidential Paper Shredding Industry welcome Budget 2017 increase in funding for The Data Protection Commissioner

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This week confidential paper shredding service vendors welcome the decision in this weeks budget for additional funding being allocated to The Data Protection Commissioners office. The additional funding makes up an increase of €2.8 million to the previous figure. This increase brings the total funding from The Irish Government for 2017 to €7.5 million. This much welcomed funding will be allocated to police and enforce the Data Protection Acts and protect Irish citizen’s data.

Even with the relatively small geographical size of Ireland, it has been difficult for the policing authority to monitor all activates by Organisations to ensure compliance with Data Protection.

An example; it can be difficult to investigate whether Organisations are complying with requirements for Data Processing (paper shredding) Cork while also completing the same for paper shredding Galway with almost 200 Kilometres in-between. The welcome news will certainly make an improvement in Ireland for Data Protection compliance and in turn protect our personal information.

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Whether it be confidential paper shredding Dublin or confidential paper shredding Limerick this announcement will help The Data Protection Commissioner to increase their employee numbers and enable them to fill in their new role with The General Data Protection Regulation from Europe.

Vice Chairman of the ISIA (SDD Division) said “This additional funding is a great step to further protecting European citizen’s personal data. With fines for a breach of legislation increasing up to €20 million it is a welcome announcement and Organisation now have the opportunity to comply.”

Shredding Companies Ireland will also have to make the leap to become compliant data processing firms, today there can be a number of high risk vendors in operation and education is the first step in protecting our data.

For any advice upon data protection and making your Organisation compliant please do not hesitate to contact one of our team through our website www.securityinshredding.com.

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Protecting your online privacy – Top tips (Part 1 of 2)

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Unlike information that is produced in paper format that can be gathered and destroyed through document shredding services Ireland or an in-house on site paper shredding facility, information in digital format on the internet can be far more difficult to destroy and delete.
This article will go through the first half of our top tips for protecting your information online.

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#1. Do not give your info away inadvertently

Many people are allowing their information to be recorded without even knowing it. In order to battle this problem, it is always a good idea to configure your web browser settings to best suit your requirements. Examples would be not to use a personal email address or your real personal details that you do not wish to share.

#2. Use cookie management software or turn on cookie notices

What are cookies? Well, they are small amounts of information that web sites store on your computer. In many cases they can be helpful for example, if you log into a website regularly such as a customer login to a paper shredding company website, the cookies can be usernames and passwords to save you from typing them in every time you log in to view your confidential shredding service information.
Other cookies can be identified for data mining purposes that will track ALL of your activity upon a given website. Most of these cookies can only be translated by the entity that made them. Many companies that manage online advertising are simply cookie sharing rings that track all of your activity to effectively market and advertise to you. If you are not aware of the cookies, you cannot protect yourself.

#3. Have a specific email account for tasks

When you may be mailing to an unknown account or posting to forums or newsgroups it is best to do this from a second “specific” email address. Addresses posted to public spaces are at high risk of being discovered by spammers. If your email begins to get inundated with spam that you cannot just securely shred to get rid of you can kill it off and start a new specific email for your more public activities.

#4. Do not share with unknown people

In conjunction with the developments of the internet, new brief friendships have increased proportionally also with many people “befriending” people that they do not actually know. Be careful because you are allowing them access to certain information upon yourself and if ever meeting in person do so in a public place. Information that should not be shared with new people immediately include but are not limited to; your place of work, your full name, your personal address, your contact number and your date of birth.
In the commercial sector, be aware of “befriending” on the short term as it is a common social engineering form of spying to get them to reveal personal information.

#5. Study privacy policies and seals

When looking at any website to do business with you should always be aware of their details relating to data privacy. Points to watch include, does the site have a posted privacy policy, does the site have a physical address or postal address. Read their policy carefully to decide if they are an entity to do business with.
Online information and Data Protection are of serious importance and awareness is key to your protection. If you are not aware you cannot protect yourself. I hope this article helps you in becoming aware and in turn more protected.
We will cover five more points in our next article that will wrap up or top tips for online privacy protection. For further information, please contact one of our team on info@securityinshredding.com

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10 Tips for protecting sensitive data in your Organisation

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The two main reasons why Organisations need to protect their data through hiring shredding companies Ireland or establishing security protocols are;

Reputation & Legislation both of which effect the financials of any given Organisation.

All companies inclusive of Shredding companies Ireland need to have some best practices in place to protect their sensitive data.

Historically legislation has varied from region to region within the EU which meant for example; a company receiving confidential shredding limerick may not be subject to the same fines, penalties and procedures as an Organisation receiving confidential shredding Paris.

With the new General Data Protection Regulation coming into effect the legislation will be harmonised across Europe. In 2018-2019 Organisations who experience a data breach through failing to have off site document shredding services in place will receive fines that will be subject to the same criteria as another Organisation may be in another region within Europe.

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Below is a small list of;

Ten Top Tips for protecting sensitive data within your Organisation;

  1. Ensure that all passwords are encrypted in nature. Do not have passwords easy to remember and introduce an encrypted method for password production.
  2. Protect against new malware. Constantly update your software to protect your Companies sensitive information. New malware is being released all the time so you need to be up to date to be protected.
  3. Eliminate USB Key memory drives. When possible Organisations should have a USB ban as it could lead to data being lost from your Company.
  4. Education, knowledge is power. Organisations are advised to run education courses for staff with specific responsibility for Data Protection.
  5. Be ready for disaster. Create a plan of action to follow in the case of a data breach. Fast and effective procedures for disaster reaction can make a significant difference to legal ramifications & your corporate reputation.
  6. Have reward systems vs penalty systems in place for staff. In an event of a data breach the key thing to take away is “what have we learned from this?” vs how will I punish the given employee.
  7. Be lenient with employee internet rules;
    1. A lock down scenario is not advised as studies have shown that it increases the likelihood of staff working around these sanctions while also putting your Organisation’s information at risk. Speak with staff, find out what they want and plan the best method of granting it to them.
  8. Establish a remote wipe facility;
    1. Leaving and losing mobile devices containing sensitive data is a growing concern for Organisations today. It is advised that you should encrypt all data on these devices and have a remote wiping facility.
  9. All confidential Information needs to be Encrypted.
    1. Do not make it easy for people to get access to information.
  10. Inclusion of staff. Include staff in all data protection control implementation. Do not depend on general information streams to effectively communicate the new rules and procedures in place, make specific meetings with the specific departments to effectively communicate your message.

For further information upon how to protect your Organisation from Data loss please contact one of the Security in Shredding Team.

Email: info@securityinshredding.com

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Secure Data Processing – What is it?

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Data processing can be defined as “the carrying out of operations on data to retrieve, transform, or classify information”. When completing paper shredding Dublin, paper shredding Limerick or Paper shredding Ireland you are transforming confidential documents that are highly valuable into destroyed paper which is ready to be recycled and holds a value that the recycling market dictates.

Before paper documents enter a destruction process they have a high monetary value to the fraudulent industry as they can be used for identity theft to name but one use.

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It is important never to treat your waste paper material as a waste product as it is far more valuable than waste. Not alone are the theft issues serious risks but there is also significant fine for Organisations that experience data breaches which are due to go up to 20 million euro.

Another important factor is that The Data Protection Laws apply to “data”, there is no reason to think that paper equates to “data”. It is for this reason that a secure data processing service that destroys all of your waste paper material is implemented instead of a simple offsite paper shredding service as you need to be certain that your service provider acknowledges that it is your data that they are destroying.

For more information upon waste paper management either our Off site shredding service Ireland, or our mobile paper shredding Ireland service please email info@securityinshredding.com

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Why is waste office paper not actual waste? (Onsite Paper Destruction)

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Historically and in some cases today people and Organisations have disposed of waste paper through waste recycling streams and have not hired in an Onsite shredding service nor an offsite shredding service for documents that are no longer required.

Within this blog entry I will be discussed Waste Vs Data (Liability).

Under Waste Management Legislation paper contains a European Waste Catalogue (EWC) Code, now this code means that the material needs to;

  1. Be recycled in line with The European Waste Hierarchy
  2. Be handled and processed through an Organisation that have a waste permit.

Having a waste permit does not mean that you are a waste company and in turn, having systems in place to recycle paper does not mean that you are a Data Processor that provides paper shredding services (I will cover this in more detail later).

Organisations such as Construction firms, Removal firms and Storage firms have waste permits in order to carry their materials but none of these firms are waste operators.    With this in mind, why would you release your confidential information that holds legislative fines of up to 20 Million Euro to a waste firm to recycle for you? Even if the waste firm offers “secure paper shredding services”, there is still no reason to justify releasing your data to them based on your legislative responsibility and obligations.

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Data Processor Vs Materials Processor

A Data Processor is a person/Organisation who processes (E.g. Destroys) personal data on behalf of a Data Controller. A Data Controller is a person/Organisation who controls the contents and use of personal data (Any Organisation).

The key point to take away here is that Data Protection Laws only apply to Data Processors and Data Controllers. So, if a Data Controller (You) releases “waste” paper DATA to a waste firm to be recycled (Securely or not), under Data Protection Law you have released personal data to an Organisation who may not be a Data Processor and the waste firm may understand it as you (The Data Controller) has actually releases waste material (Paper material) for recycling. In the case of a data breach occurring here who do you feel will be at fault and who will receive the fines of up to 20 Million Euro, yes your correct, it will be you The Data Controller.

So when you are deciding upon what paper shred service to implement within your business, it is important to understand that you need a Data Processing Firm to destroy that data for you. If an Organisation is for example offering secure onsite paper shredding or secure offsite paper shredding they need to acknowledge that it is Data that they are processing for you.

For more information upon Data Protection and how to protect your business please contact one of our helpful team at;

info@securityinshredding.com

Top Tips; Why use a clean desk policy? (Onsite paper destruction)

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Why? (Clean Desk Policy & Document Shredding)

This is simple, if you do not have a clean desk policy and complete either onsite paper destruction or use an offsite paper shredding service you are increasing the amount of risk that your Organisation is subject to.

New Regulation (Encourage Onsite Paper Destruction)

With the introduction of The New General Data Protection Regulation this year, Organisations failing to appropriately manage their waste paper data and go on to experience a data breach can be subject to fines of up to 20 Million Euro in 2018.

With that said, the importance for Organisations to have appropriate procedures in place for waste document destruction has become a leading factor for senior management today. Examples of such systems would be an Offsite document shredding service, an offsite document destruction service, an onsite document destruction service or in-house paper shredding Ireland.

Security in Shredding Confidential Paper Shredding

A Clean Desk Policy helps protect your Organisation, your clients and your reputation amongst the general public. Within all Organisations there is data the is “Sensitive in Nature” and most business activities require confidentiality. With everyone in the office having contact with certain information it is essential for them to protect that data from unauthorized access. Your Clean Desk Policy will help reduce the risk of information leaking from your Organisation and increase the overall data security making sure all unneeded information enters your offsite paper shredding service Ireland.

In addition to overall security through ensuring all waste paper is destroyed through your offsite document shredding service, studies have shown that when employees are in a clean work environment their work efficiency increases. This productivity increase will translate to your customers increasing their peace of mind and in turn potnetially increasing your client numbers.

When a client is aware of your procedures they will increase their trust in your Organisation as they know that no data will be left unattended and all data no longer required will be securely destroyed through your off site paper shredding service Ireland.

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This is the third and final part of our three-part blog on constructing and implementing your clean desk policy. For more information upon Clean Desk Policies please contact one of our team at Security in Shredding, we are happy to be of help with this serious topic of Data Protection.

Contact info@securityinshredding.com