Tag Archives: paper shredding Galway

Why Outsource The Shredding Of Documents?

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harddrive destruction, Media Destruction, Confidential Shredding Service

Are you an Entrepreneur in Galway or Limerick?, confidential shredding is available for confidential on site shredding.

have you ever wondered how paper shredding can save you from company data breaches while justifying the cost for such a shredding service, your approach of secure data paper shredding towards confidential shredding through a professional accredited service vendor which can only save your company from breaching sensitive data? What does the ‘confidential’ mean in paper destruction?

It signifies security in shredding, destruct the data and documents under secure atmospheres and completed by security screened paper shredding personnel. Buying your own in-house shredding machines can never destroy your private papers and data completely and securely with efficiency and accountability.

 

The following are some internal costs an individual can eliminate if he/she outsources the shredding from professional paper shredders

  • Payroll cost of the employee for the time spent feeding the office shredding machine
  • Data Protection Training fees for employees in charge of data destruction
  • Manual Handling Training fees for employees in charge of data destruction
  • Acquiring cost of high-level shredding machine is not probable to manage for a middle-class business entrepreneur
  • Recycling fee for material to be recycled and receive certification of compliance
  • Time spent in removing the paper clips and staples to shred in paper shredding machines
  • Regular maintenance cost of office paper shredding machine
  • Extra cleanup time, as paper shredding machine generates dust on shred
  • Extra cost of disposing of the large volume of shredded documents
  • Who decides what is to be destroyed and not destroyed?.

It may be probable to purchase a small and lower PPM (pages per minute) shredding machine which may lead to the loss of an employee’s working day from what you have hired him/her for and evenly that document shredding machine can never provide and transparent clear audit trail.

What about unused data that have been left on electronic media (USB or hard drive, CDs, DVDs, etc.)? Sometimes, an entrepreneur may buy a small destruction machine for document shredding and/or drill a hole through the Hard Drive. The methods above are not appropriate for secure data destruction from electronic devices as the data remains on the device.

An appropriate method for the secure destruction is to avail of a confidential shredding Galway & Limerick which ensures compliance.

Paper Shredding Galway & Limerick is your number one choice for data destruction

Limerick Businesses & Organisations, ISIA Event 15th June 2016

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ISIA Secure Document Destruction Event

Weather its industrial paper shredding or data processing of any kind. Limerick businesses and organisations should attend the Irish Security Industry Association event on the 15th of June 2016.

The ISIA’s Secure Data Destruction division is delighted to announce the launch of its Guidance Document on Secure Data Destruction. To mark the launch of this guidance document, we will be holding a seminar on data protection and the secure destruction of data with an exciting line up of seminar speakers.

Secure Data Destruction

Is the theme of the event and leading experts from the industry will be giving talks throughout the event. Oisin Tobin (Mason Hayes & Curran), Jim Gregg (Irish Computer Society) and John Nealon (Irish Security Industry Association) will be the guest speakers of the event.

Who Should Attend?

Anyone with responsibility for managing data, risk or legal compliance would be highly recommended to attend the event. Managers, IT Support staff or anyone that processes data within your company or organisation would also recommend attending the event.

Those who attend will receive updates on

  • Your legal responsibilities under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • The practical commercial application of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Applying the ISIA’s Guidance Document on Secure Data Destruction to your business.
  • Managing the risks your business could face when holding and destroying data.

Event Details

Date:      Wednesday 15th June 2016

Venue:   Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2

Time:     10:00 – 12:00 (Regestration from 09:30)

Contact Info: email events@isia.ie or call 01-4847206

Security In Shredding confidential shredding service

At Security In Shredding Data Protection and Data Destruction are vital aspects of our business model. Keeping up to date with data protection laws is vital for our business to succeed. The new General Data Protection Act text was released recently and will come into effect in 2018. Knowing these changes so we can implement them when shredding documents.

Our confidential document shredding team operate throughout the Limerick and Galway regions work with compliance to the data protection act and data protection commissioner. For more information on shredding Ireland please visit out site for more information.

10 Threats Against Data Security For Small Business

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privacy-data-security

Bigger companies incorporate off site data destruction practices, small businesses often don’t have the financial resources to house large scale IT departments, purchase the latest and greatest technology or invest into data security.

Many a cash-strapped small business finds itself operating its critical systems on computers that are old, slow and often times insecure. This leaves them susceptible to a wide array of security pitfalls and privacy threats, including data leaks and identity theft.

Fortunately, beefing up your security doesn’t necessarily mean draining your bank account. There are many inexpensive options to improve the security of your small business and protect your information.

Geoffrey Arone, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of SafetyWeb, gave his take on 10 very real threats facing small businesses and how they can be addressed in ways that are free or inexpensive.

1. Data Breach Resulting From Poor Networking Choices
Enterprise-level networking choices that are found in large IT departments around the world carry costs that price small or medium businesses out of the market. SMBs that have networks often use networking devices targeted at home users. Some may forgo the use of routers at all, plugging directly into the internet.

Business owners can block most threats by using a quality router, like a NETGEAR or Buffalo brand router, and making sure to change the router password from the default to something more secure.

2. Data Breach Resulting From Improper Shredding Practices
Trivial as it may seem, dumpster diving identity thieves target businesses that throw out paperwork without shredding it. Your small office shredders will NOT suffice for a secure document destruction, but a industrial paper shredding company is a wise investment if private or sensitive information is printed and shredded daily.

3. Identity Theft Resulting From Public Databases
Individuals, especially business owners, often publish lots of information about themselves in public databases. Businesses are registered with governments, telephone numbers are in the phone book, and many individuals have social media profiles with their address and date of birth. Many identity thieves can use information obtained across various public forums to construct a complete identity.

4. Identity Theft Resulting From Using A Personal Name Instead Of Filing An OA
Sole-proprietors that have not registered a business name to receive “operating as” designation are at a far higher risk of identity theft due to their personal name, rather than their business name, being published publicly.

5. Tax Records Theft Around Tax Time
Businesses should ensure that tax returns are dropped off at the post office and refunds are collected promptly from the mailbox. Identity thieves often steal tax returns from an outbox or mailbox.

6. Bank Fraud Due To Gap In Protection Or Monitoring
Business owners know that it is vital to balance their accounts every month to ensure that checks are not being written out of business funds by embezzlers, but many businesses rarely, if ever, check what kind of credit accounts have been opened under the business name. Monitoring services like myID.com can alert business owners when new credit accounts are opened fraudulently.

7. Poor E-mailing Standards
Many businesses treat e-mails as confidential communications, but this is far from the case. They are available to a number of people other than the recipient. It’s more appropriate to treat e-mails as postcards, rather than sealed letters.

8. Failing To Choose A Secure Password
In fact, many security experts are recommending the use of a pass phrase, rather than a pass word. Pass phrases are several words long, at least three, and are far more secure than passwords. A pass phrase like “Friday blue jeans” can be typed far quicker than a complicated password, and it doesn’t need to be written down on a post-it. The length of a password increases security.

9. Not Securing New Computers Or Hard Drives
Businesses that had their IT system professionally installed may opt to upgrade a computer or two by themselves. This is strongly discouraged on a business network, as new computers must be professionally secured or else they pose a serious threat and an entry point for hackers.

10. Social Engineering
Social engineers are individuals that call and claim they are from another organization. They may even claim to be with a firm that a business owner does business with. If someone you do not know calls on the phone, be sure that it is the person you think it is before revealing passwords or confidential information.

For more information on a paper shredding or confidential document shredding service in the Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin area, please visit: https://www.securityinshredding.com/

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Adopting A Secure Document Shredding Strategy For Business

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 confidential shredding, clean desk policy

A secure document shredding policy is integral to any business and protecting customer data is legislative. The Data Protection Commissioner implements the provisions of EU Directive 95/46. Not only are these regulations that require businesses to shred documents securely, but it is also part of running a business and maintaining a positive business reputation.

Why Businesses Need To Securely Destroy Documents?

Every day, companies create paper documents and these documents require shredding. Practically any document that contains data and especially sensitive data needs to be shredded. In particular data containing the following would be regarded as sensitive data:

  • Person’s Name
  • Address
  • contact information
  • Account Details
  • Credit Card Details
  • Budget Reports
  • Medical Reports
  • Payroll information
  • Legal contracts
  • Receipt Information

This is a snippet of what data to shred any and all documents should be securely destroyed by a secure document shredding service.

How This Data Can Be Used Against You?

Not only is forgery and fraud a major issue but also there is of course the potential for bad publicity, loss of customers and lawsuits to name but a few of the dangers. Identity theft is a common issue with data breaches. Criminals will use this data to either make purchases or obtain more data under the pretence of your name.
It is important that all businesses shred or destroy certain sensitive documents. Law enforcement, legal industries, government agencies, banks, health care providers, insurance providers, financial brokers, and real estate are just a few industries where managing paperwork is crucial.

How To Manage Business Documents Safely & Effectively?

A detailed security policy for every type of document your business handles is essential and employees need to know these policies before starting work.

For example:

What are the shredding requirements for the various document types that your company frequently uses? What are employees allowed to photocopy? Incorporating a reputable Confidential Shredding Company that has a good track record. While also training employees about the correct method of destroying sensitive documents and ensuring correct secure policies about how long to hold and when to destroy documents.  Access to company records should be controlled and restricted to a small number of trusted individuals and there should be rules relating to access of these records. A notification or logging system can also be in place to account for what and where data is being used.

At Security In Shredding we operate throughout Ireland and frequently do business in areas of Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford areas.

For a more information on Shredding confidential paper Services & data destruction service, please visit: www.securityinshredding.com

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5 Reasons to Hire a Data Destruction Service Provider

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Media Destruction Data Protection

Confidential shredding is available in the Limerick area provided by Security In Shredding. Incorporation a data destruction service into your business practice is beneficial for your data security and data protection. While also being a good recycling practice.

Top 5 reasons why you should hire a Data Destruction company such as Security in Shredding:

  1. Data Security

In order to protect confidential information and reduce the risk of a data breach, Security in Shredding advise to outsource data destruction requirements to a professional, certified service provider. All data containing personal information must be securely destroyed when it reaches its end of life.

“An office shredder simply can’t provide the same security as a professional company. A reliable document destruction company provides a secure chain of custody, from the time the documents are collected, through to shredding using cross-cut shredders, and ends with” a Data Processing Certificate after each service delivery.

  1. Compliance

It is not just simply destroying documents that are no longer needed, but it is both best practise and it is in Data Protection Legislation.

data destruction and collection service

  1. Saves Money

By outsourcing your data destruction requirements you are cutting out the cost of purchasing an in house shredding machine, maintenance costs resulting in saving money. You are also reducing the amount of employee down time spent on the shredding of data resulting in the employee being 100% focused on their own job.

  1. Convenience

A renowned shredding company will provide the client with lockable receptacles and locate them in suitable and convenient locations around the building. These locations will be previously identified with the client to ensure the employees have ease of access to place paper data awaiting destruction.

At a prearranged date and time Security in Shredding will arrive on site and remove and replace the receptacles of paper for destruction with little or no disruption, for shredding.

  1. Additional Services

There are a number of other mediums of confidential data that needs to be destroyed. Out of date PC’s, e-data carriers and storage devices also require destruction when the data on them reaches end of life. Research has shown for example that wiping a hard drive is not a guaranteed method of destroying the e-data contained within but physical destruction is the most reliable method of destruction of data. You have total peace of mind that the data is 100% beyond reconstruction.

For more information on a data destruction and media destruction service, please visit: https://www.securityinshredding.com/limerick-shredding-services.php for more information. We are also available throughout the country along with Limerick our paper shredding is available in the Dublin, Galway and Cork areas.

Follow us on Twitter @Securityinshred and please like, subscribe and share.

Shredding Documents Before Recycling Them

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Data Protection, Paper Shredding, limeirck paper shredding

Paper data still plays a major part of industrial paper shredding. It is important that you are Shredding confidential paper before it is put into recycling. This is to ensure that your data is protected and cannot be viewed by public eye.

Paper like any other recycling is often left in the blue bin outside your home or business for it to be collected. This is a common practice and nothing wrong with it. If your recycling contains documents of a personal nature and or sensitive data nor for public knowledge, how it is disposed needs to be taken into consideration.

It is quite easy to access anything contained in these bins and within an urban area someone in a “white van” and a high vis jacket could pull up and throw these bags into the van. What they do with these documents may be unclear but can be malicious intent. Having the documents shredded before it is recycled will increase your data security.

Shredding Documents

A good practice for your business to incorporate is to shred your document before you put them into recycling bin. Also to be aware that a simple office shredder does NOT provide adequate data destruction. This data can be reconstructed. An industrial paper shredding service provides you with secure paper shredding. Incorporating a service to handle and destroy your documents should be used.

Scheduled Onsite Collection

A reputable shredding service will provide you with a collection service to handle and securely destroy documents you have. Ringing your shredding service provider and organising a collection at a time specified by you will ensure that you know when your documents are to be transferred.

A shredding service can provide you with sealed bags for collection and shred them in off site paper destruction location. A shredding service can also provide onsite shredding service with their specially designed trucks to handle and destroy these documents.

Data Protection

Under the EU directive the data protection act and the data protection commissioner are governing bodies in place to ensure that businesses handle data correctly and ensure sensitive data is used in a correct manner.

For more information on a reputable shredding service in Ireland please visit:

https://www.securityinshredding.com/

Responding To Data Breaches

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Secure Paper Shredding Hard Drive Shredding WEEE Destruction

Paper Data;

Without a confidential document shredding service in place for shredding documents and media devices. Your company or business may become under scrutiny for not having these defensive measures in place to begin with.

It is common practice for a business to securely deal with paper documents in its handling, who can access it and how it is destroyed. Most businesses and organisations will incorporate a reputable paper shredding service and these processes are all above board.

Digital Data;

This trend is still widely used but not with the increase in use of mobile devices globally. Digital Data has become the preferred use of displaying data. How this information is used and the potential of this information being misused. Issues regarding digital use to be an “IT issue” but this is now no longer the case. Data Breaches and leaks have become more and more common due to lack of cyber protections in place. Lack of knowledge for one about cyber security is one factor that causes these issues.

Data Protection

A Data Protection strategy for digital and paper documents must be implemented throughout a business. There are governing bodies in place and bodies localised to your business and is worth knowing what procedures are in place for data protection. In Ireland the Data Protection Commissioner is a governing body directive from the EU.

“The office of the Data Protection Commissioner is established under the 1988 Data Protection Act.  The Data Protection Amendment Act, 2003, updated the legislation, implementing the provisions of EU Directive 95/46. The Acts set out the general principle that individuals should be in a position to control how data relating to them is used.”

The DPC provides guidelines for data protection and methods. If these measures are in place before a data breach occurs, it can save face for a business reputation and wont be scrutinised for not having these measurements in place to begin with.

The DPC site offers guidelines regarding Data Security both physically and digitally and the guidelines can be viewed here.

https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Guidance-Material-Menu-Page/m/219.htm

An Industrial Paper Shredding Service will provide you with credible Data Protection service please visit our site for more information:

Email us at info@securityinshredding.com

Paper Vs Digital Data

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Paper Data vs Digital Data

Paper Data & Digital Data are both equally as important to protect from data breaches. A Paper Shredding Service should provide a Din 66399 Standard when shredding documents. This ensures that documents are destroyed beyond repair. While this deals with paper data and documents. Your digital data is just as vital to protect. 

We now live in a digital age. With the increase in usage of electronic devices and data is accessed and viewed digitally. This has caused a decrease in print media. Forbes magazine released a interesting article about the benefits of print media.

Over the past decade media has switched to digital based as people now access information through digital media. While there wont be a switch back to print media recent neuroscience research has shed new light on this form of media.

“Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital media (5.15 vs. 6.37), suggesting that it is both easier to understand and more memorable. Post-exposure memory tests validated what the cognitive load test revealed about direct mail’s memory encoding capabilities. When asked to cite the brand (company name) of an advertisement they had just seen, recall was 70% higher among participants who were exposed to a direct mail piece (75%) than a digital ad (44%).

load-recall

The study continues and explains how paper causes an emotional response to the brain:

  • Physical material is more “real” to the brain. It has a meaning, and a place. It is better connected to memory because it engages with its spatial memory networks.
  • Physical material involves more emotional processing, which is important for memory and brand associations.
  • Physical materials produced more brain responses connected with internal feelings, suggesting greater “internalization” of the ads.

Your recall is better from paper media. So don’t throw out the printer just yet. Accessibility of data may be easier digitally but data will be read and learned better from paper. Whatever method you choose it is important to know that the data needs to be protected.

Data protection laws are in place for businesses that contain sensitive data. With paper a confidential shredding service should be implemented for your business to dispose of sensitive data in a secure manor.

For information on a confidential shredding service please visit:

https://www.securityinshredding.com/

Read the Forbes full article here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/09/16/paper-vs-digital/#5d5ee8301aa2

 

Data Protection A Human Right

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Amnesty International Data Protection a Human Right

Confidential document destruction services are vital part of business data protection. paper shredders / shredding services in Ireland have governing bodies in place to enforce and ensure people are complying with Data Protections laws.

“Encryption is a basic prerequisite for privacy and free speech in the digital age. Banning encryption is like banning envelopes and curtains. It takes away a basic tool for keeping your private life private,” said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Global Issues.

It can be hard to comprehend the benefit of encryption when using a device. What happens in the background on devices and applications can even confuse even the most informed individual. The above statement from Elsayed does put it into perspective. With a major organisation such a Amnesty international in support for data protection, ensuring your business protects its data needs to be paramount.

The Data Protection Act is an EU standard that ensures that the access and movement of personal data is protected accordingly. These standards are in place to protect your personal information. Online usage has grown and is still growing. Access to online services and devices to use it are widely available in particular mobile devices are now becoming the no.1 method of transactions for e-commerce sites.

Using these sites or services requires and stores personal data and this data is sensitive and businesses must ensure that this data is protected. If a business does not secure its data it can be ruin a companies reputation and not to mention the penalties for a data breach from unsecured data.

There are many ways to store and display data. Weather it is electronically or paper, if it contains sensitive data it needs to be stored and destroyed securely. A document destruction service should be sought when destroying documents. A simple office shredder will not securely destroy your documents.

Media devices such as hard drives if being replaced or recycled should be destroyed if they contain sensitive data. Wiping the drive or formatting the drive does not remove the data entirely and can be retrieved.

A Din 66399 Standard is a standard set for paper shredding. This standard ensures the highest security when shredding documents and devices. When hiring a reputable shredding service this standard should be sought after.

For more information on a confidential shredding service please visit:  https://www.securityinshredding.com/

Read Amnesty International full report here:

https://www.amnestyusa.org/research/reports/encryption-a-matter-of-human-rights

Dangers Of Data Breaches For Small Businesses

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Heartbleed Data Theft

Secure document shredding in Dublin and throughout the country are services needed to ensure your business is complying with Data Protection laws. These laws are in place to ensure businesses that possess sensitive data are protecting against vulnerabilities both physically and digitally.

Cyber criminals will target small businesses. In the UK the minister for the digital economy Ed Vaizey outlined (2015) that a major security breach for a small business in the UK could cost as much as £310,800. This figure also applies to Irish businesses and any small business in operation.

Dataprotection.ie have detailed descriptions on how to protect your business and improve its security. The site has guidelines to improve your business security. Researching online can be difficult because you will read conflicting reports and incorrect information. The data protection site provides you with useful and up to date information from a governing body to help improve your business security and data protection.

On the site is a guideline to improve your data security. It covers the law to software and IT support to use. With a little bit of know how and awareness to possible threats will benefit you and your business greatly.

There are 19 steps in total on the guideline page which can be read in full at data security guideline page, below are a steps from said list.

1. Install an Anti Virus Software

It is a necessity for any electronic device that transfers data. Anti Virus software protects more than just your computer, it also protects your emails and personal details when online. Malware is a big threat to computers and using a reputable ant virus will benefit.

Remember to update the anti virus software regularly as anti virus software can only protect against known viruses.

2. Firewalls

Firewalls are a essential form of protection where there is external connection. Always on internet is now a common practice for businesses. This makes a properly configured firewall a good form of security.

3. Wireless networks

When using a wireless network in your own business network make sure that proper encryption is setup on the wireless network. Be aware when using public networks such hotels and airports can potentially a risk. Use it if necessary and if you are transferring personal data make sure to be in a secure session on the device.

4. Human Factor

Is often over looked and is often used to breach a business. For example cyber criminals have accessed user accounts by using passwords such as “123456” and or “password.” Sounds crazy but happens more often than you would think. Use a more cryptic password. What the password contains will help its strength but the more characters used the greater the strength.

Also be aware of printed documents that may contain sensitive data and if not disposed properly can be accessed. Having a reputable Shredding Service dispose of your documents securely and safely.

For more information on a secure shredding visit: https://www.securityinshredding.com/  for more information.