Common Paper Shredding Mistakes to Avoid

Many businesses have invested heavily in protecting their confidential information in this technology-driven world where identity theft and data breaches have become considerably common. However, while they mainly aim to develop robust IT applications, they tend to neglect the vulnerabilities associated with the physical security of information – which is paper shredding.

There are many ways businesses can go wrong with paper shredding, from hoarding documents to relying on office shredders. This can pose serious threats to your business, including business fraud, identify theft issues, and so on.

However, you can prevent this from happening if you avoid some common paper shredding mistakes.

4 Common Paper Shredding Mistakes to Avoid

Here are four common paper shredding mistakes you need to avoid:

1. Hoarding Documents

Hoarding documents is one of the most common mistakes many organizations make. Though keeping recent and relevant records isn’t wrong, preserving no longer needed documents with confidential information can harm your business.

These documents will increase the risk of data breaches like identity theft while taking valuable storage that you can use for other purposes. It’s advisable to go through these documents from time to time, index and classify them correctly, and destroy them to avoid significant damage.

2. Using Office Shredders

There’s no denying that office shredders are a good option for occasional document shredding. However, they are not much reliable, secure, and efficient when it comes to large-scale paper destruction. Also, if you’re using an office shredder, you can only shred a limited amount of paper, and you need to remove paperclips and staples from the documents.

To avoid facing such issues, it’s best to hire a professional paper shredding company. A proper shredding service provider will ensure that your documents are destroyed timely and securely.

3. Discarding Documents in the Trash

Almost every organization (small or large) carelessly discards confidential documents in recycling bins every day. This can lead to security breaches and identity theft issues since even a tiny piece of information can be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.

If you want to prevent this from happening, investing in a proper shredding service provider will be ideal. These service providers will securely shred your sensitive documents while ensuring compliance with the laws.

4. Not Hiring a Certified Shredding Company

In this technology-driven world, it’s no secret that partnering with a shredding company is vital to ensure all your confidential information is destroyed securely. However, with so many shredding companies available, not all of them are National Association of Information Destruction (NAID) AAA certified.

NAID certified companies strictly comply with the security standards for irretrievable destruction of your confidential documents, giving you peace of mind.

The Final Cut

With the massive rise in data breaches and identity theft issues, businesses must take every possible step to prevent their confidential information from falling into the wrong hands. However, some companies still fail to understand the importance of shredding documents securely and pay a hefty price later. If you want to protect your business from data breaches, make sure you avoid the common paper shredding mistakes mentioned above.