The Costs and Risks of
In-House Shredding
With of identity theft and business fraud incidents on the rise, document shredding is more important than ever. But before using a do-it-yourself approach to destroy your files, you may want to think twice. In-house shredding comes with costs and risks that negatively impact your business. Here we discuss the three main problems with shredding your own documents.
1. It’s time–consuming and counter-productive
Office paper shredders seem to offer a solution for preventing identity theft and business fraud. But the sheer time and number of tasks involved are often overlooked until it’s too late. For example, shredding a single file is a multi-step process:
1. Remove paper clips, staples, sticky notes, cardstock and file folder or binder
2. Separate the document into easily-shredded portions
3. Feed the paper into the shredder
4. Empty the shredding receptacle
5. Clean up spilled bits of shredded material
6. Toss the bag of shredded paper in the dumpster
That’s a lot of effort, and it still doesn’t take into consideration the extra time required to fix paper jams and troubleshoot other maintenance issues. When employee labor costs and lost productivity are factored into your in-house shredding program, your company loses money each time your staff shreds documents.
A secure shredding service streamlines document disposal for your business. Security containers are strategically placed throughout your office. Whole files—including staples, paperclips, sticky notes, etc.—can be swiftly dropped into a collection container Depending on the volume of information your business needs to shred, security containers are collected on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis and your documents are shredded for you. A truly secure shredding service eliminates hours wasted standing over an office shredder, enhancing your business productivity and profitability.
2. You’re at risk for a privacy breach
In-house shredding isn’t only costly, it’s risky. Employees who are short on time often avoid office shredders. When this happens, either confidential documents don’t get shredded at all, or they are tossed in a waste or recycling bin instead of being destroyed. Either choice increases your company’s exposure to privacy breaches that can spell big legal trouble for your business.
A number of federal regulations impose stiff penalties against companies that fail to protect consumer information:
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA)
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
3. You’re Not NAID AAA Certified
A NAID AAA Certified secure shredding service offers verifiable methods for ensuring the expedient and secure disposal of confidential material. In order to achieve NAID AAA Certification, a shredding plant must pass 17 strict audit requirements. A certified vendor’s facility must be protected by a fence with controlled access, monitored security cameras, and alarm sensors throughout the building and property. Once certified, each vendor is subject to surprise audits to ensure they continue to meet NAID’s high standards.
Screened professionals collect and destroy your documents. Chain of custody procedures are consistently followed during collection, transfer and destruction, all the way through final recycling. The entire shredding process is recorded to video and stored for 90 days. You receive a Certificate of Destruction for your records to serve as proof of compliance with the regulatory requirements affecting your business.
The Bottom Line
No business is able to meet these stringent standards when shredding documents in-house. When you factor in the costs and risks, in-house shredding simply isn’t worth it. A NAID AAA Certified secure shredding service destroys your documents efficiently and securely every time.
Richards & Richards offers secure paper shredding solutions for businesses throughout Nashville. For more information, please contact us by phone or complete the form on this page.
