Tag Archives: onsite paper destruction Ireland

Identity theft – stats, tips and how to protect your information

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Paper shredding in Ireland is a growing industry sector and for good reason. Approximately 7% of all adults within the US have their identities misused with substantial financial losses equating to approximately €3,000.

Close to 100 million additional people have their personal identifying information put at risk of identity theft each year when records from Government & Corporate databases are misplaced or stolen. It makes total sense to see secure, professional, and regulated destruction services being introduced and increased in Ireland. Services such as on site document shredding, clear out shredding, purge clear out services and off-site document shredding services are there for all Corporates and Governments to implement to protect your and my identity.

The level of sophistication used by organised crime to facilitate identity theft is ever increasing. Examples of such sophistication to name but a few are; tailored vishing scams, hacks of corporate and government databases to elaborate bots designed to hack your computer without leaving a trace.

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The more historic/basic methods of identity theft are still out there with high numbers of people being a victim of. Simply pick pocketing wallets, going through your waste bins for sensitive paper, following waste trucks to sift through the waste material for paper and social engineering to trick innocent people into releasing personal information still work and work well.

Within this article, I will highlight some of the straightforward ways you can have your identity stolen with the hope that I can help some potentially targeted people in protecting their identity. There are also some tips to protect yourself when possible.

How you can be a victim

  1. People going through a pharmacy waste bin, unfortunately not all pharmacies avail of offsite document shredding services and their bins can contain significant amounts of personal information.
  2. People hacking into GP records, health records from a doctor’s office contain vital personal information. Many identity thieves will try to hack medical facilities electronic health records.
  3. Never use your place of birth as your security question, it is easy to find out this information.
  4. RFID scanner, many credit and debit cards are enabled for contactless payments. Yes, this is convenient but if a thief can get close enough to you he/she can make a convenient withdrawal at your expense.
  5. Using camera phones, always be careful when you are in a situation where you need to show personal details and information, a camera phone could be watching you.
  6. Accepting strange friend request on social media, if you do not know who they are, our advice does not accept.
  7. Leaving bills in your mailbox for pickup, always deliver your bill personally
  8. Putting cheques in the mail, if required always place additional paper within the envelope so the data cannot be seen under lights.
  9. Never changing your passwords, you should always change your password at least once a year.
  10. Failing to consider once off credit cards, it is a good idea if you are not a regular online shopper.
  11. Leaving receipts behind, you should always take your receipts with you even if it only shows the last four digits of your account number.

For more tips to stay safe please contact one of our team at info@securityinshredding.com

Do’s and Don’ts on Social Media to protect your info

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Social media has grown where most people will operate across multiple social media platforms. While these such platforms have made us feel closer to friends and family that are far away it has not come without added risk.

Apart from secure document shredding Galway, secure document shredding Dublin and paper shredding Ireland, it is essential for all people using social media to be careful and diligent when using their platforms.

Online criminals can target these platform profiles to make use of our most private details, even details we may not class as “important” can be of high value to an online criminal. Simple “check in” details of our favourite restaurants can end up revealing more than was intended.

Next time before you tweet, click or share your next updates it is important to be sure that you are protecting your information.  Below is a brief list of Do’s and Don’ts that we believe will help you to ensure that your privacy is maintained.

DO’s…

  1. Create a strong and long password. We suggest that your passwrods should contain upper and lower case letters with numbers included also. Similar to paper shredding Ireland, a non-secure shred size will be reconstructed where a certified shredding service either a mobile paper shredding service or an offsite paper shredding service resulting in particle shred sizes cannot be reconstructed. Do not make it easy.
  2. Use a two factor login process for authentication purposes. We advise that the phone option where a time sensitive code will be sent to your phone to be entered when logging in on a new device.
  3. Keep all social apps updated, the latest versions will be up to date with all data protection risks at that current time.
  4. Edit your privacy settings on social media. Make sure your information is not being shared with strangers.
  5. Delete old apps from your devices fully. Make sure to go into the settings to fully remove the apps, removing from the screen may not delete all of your data.

Don’ts….

  1. Do not share location details, these include where you live, where you visit regularly and where you vacate to for holidays. This kind of information can put you at risk of identity theft and/or inform criminals of your whereabouts.
  2. Do not post mean and harmful posts online. It is good practice to post about other as you want them to post about you.
  3. Do not take cyberbullying lightly, it can be extremely damaging to your self-esteem and if allows to continue and grow will put your safety and privacy at risk.

For further information upon social media security and confidential paper shredding Ireland please get in touch with one of our team.

Email: info@securityinshredding.com

Top Tips; Implementing a clean desk policy (Secure document destruction Ireland)

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During the implementation process it is important to have a clear confidential document shredding policy in place whether it is an onsite paper destruction system, a mobile paper shredding system, an off site shredding service or in-house shredding service the options are there to ensure compliance with Data Protection Legislation.

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Our advice!

  1. Your Clean Desk Policy must be put in writing

It is a good idea to clearly communicate the policy to all staff who are responsible for managing their confidential document shredding and management of their documents. We advise that you inform employees in writing as to how to follow your policy in addition to informing them why it is important to your Organisation. As Organisations deal with varying levels of sensitive information it is important to inform them as to the consequences if any member fails to comply with the policy and manage their onsite paper destruction effectively and securely.

  1. Provide secure storage

    (Data awaiting destruction through your mobile paper shredding service)

If you communicate your clean desk policy to all employees, you are on the right track for effective confidential document destruction management. One important factor to consider is the provision of secure storage containers. You cannot have a successful policy in place if your staff do not have anywhere available to them to store their sensitive documents that await the secure document destruction process. This point directly covered in the Data Protection Legislation in order to keep data safe and secure.

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  1. Encourage electronic data Vs paper data usage

When staff are encouraged to use electronic copies vs printing hard paper copies of information while working, your Organisation will benefit. You will reduce your requirement for confidential document shredding within your office, reducing your business costs, helping the environment while also increasing overall data security.

  1. Routinely complete full data back-ups.

This point is important for all business not only to maintain a Clean Desk Policy. However, when encouraging staff to complete their duties through electronic data forms to reduce the mobile paper shredding burden, it is essential to have an effective data backup system in place.

  1. Finally, begin your communication from The Top!!

This Clean Desk Policy has to be complied with and understood to be serious. If senior management do not follow the policy and continue to have paper pilling up and not routinely destroying their documents through the onsite paper shredding service, why would any other employees?

So make sure to get full agreement from all senior management to ensure a successful policy implementation.

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This is part two of a three-part blog providing information upon constructing, implementing and justifying your Clean Desk Policy. For any further information upon the Clean Desk Policy please contact one of our helpful team to go through the details and answer any possible queries you may have.

Contact: info@securityinshredding.com