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

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As mentioned in our previous article, information in paper form can be destroyed through an onsite paper shredding service Ireland or an in-house onsite paper shredding facility.

Reputable paper shredding companies with the required certifications can also provide offsite document shredding services where your paper data is released to be destroyed under contract. The key points here are that the vendors providing the offsite paper shredding service have the required certifications and you have agreed under contract for the data to be processed which is the actual paper shredding process.

When talking about releasing personal paper files for offsite paper shredding the majority of people will always be concerned with whom they are giving the data to however when the data is in digital form and communicated through the internet the same level of caution does not always be applied.

Our first five tips to protect yourself online were;

  1. Do not give your info away inadvertently
  2. Use cookie management software
  3. Have a specific email account
  4. Do not share with unknown people
  5. Study privacy policies

In this article we will list our final five tips on protecting yourself online.

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#1.          Be aware of potential monitoring at work

In many Countries employees have little to no privacy protection from their employers. With this in mind, when discussing sensitive topics in email be sure of whom you are communicating to. Keep private data on your home network at home.

#2.          Be aware of rewards & prizes offered by sites.

More than likely these kind of sites are gathering information for direct marketing purposes. In this scenario your name and address s sold for marketing purposes.

#3.          Be conscious of your home computer security

If you home computer is set up on a DSL line that runs 24 hours be sure to turn off your computer when not using it. Many PCs will have poor security levels and system hackers will search for vulnerable computers and can invade them and get into your files and personal details.

#4.          Use encryption

Good encryption will utilise security codes that are difficult crack and protect your data. There are easy to use mail and file encryption services available out there. Hopefully all devices will come with security encryption built into their servers, until then, be aware and be safe.

#5.          Never reply to spammers

These Spam messages also known as unsolicited bulk email need to receive a response to tell their system that this email is being used. If you end up opening one of these messages check to see if there is anything in your outgoing box in case there is a return receipt attached to the mail. If you are getting spammed there are a great deal of filters and anti-spam services available out there.

Awareness if key, receive some education and proceed with caution are the best tips to have. Technology is every advancing and with it you also need to evolve, increase your knowledge and you will be in a safer position.

For more information on online security or confidential paper shredding service Ireland please contact one of our team on info@securityinshredding.com.

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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; 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