Whether you’re a large franchise or small family owned business, the practice of document shredding in the workplace can save you time and money in the future. Every business, even a work at home mom, has sensitive information that when stolen can have devastating effects on employees, customers, key business players, and sales. Not to mention the thousands of dollars it might take to recover from the damage. However, there are certain business types that need to focus on this practice more than others such as government agencies and e-commerce stores.
If these industries fail to carefully shred sensitive documents, important information such as customer payment details and employee social security numbers can be left out in the open for a criminal to steal.
Government Industries – Any business in the government field holds highly sensitive information and document shredding could protect themselves, their employees, and any vendors and suppliers that associate with them.
Skilled Criminals go through great lengths daily to steal information and will target your business industry first.
Medical and Justice – Hospitals have millions of patients a year and these patients willingly trust you with their most personal information. This information includes insurance details, social security numbers, medical problems, payment information, income, family background, and a lot more. This paves the way for a criminal to easily commit identity theft.
If this type of information gets out, you are held liable for the financial damage to the patients and will suffer major lawsuits.
The same goes for Law firms and other legal businesses. When your clients hire you for their case, they trust you with all of their information and if it lands in the hands of a criminal, you are responsible.
E-commerce Stores – Because of the advancements of new technology, it is becoming easier and easier to commit an online crime. When customers buy from your online store, their credit card or PayPal information is out in the open along with their name, address, and phone number. There are thousands of security breaches every year where customer’s credit cards or online banking account information is stolen and used to make big purchases. Some of these crimes even go on without finding the true criminal while the victims can suffer from money loss as big as the value of a house or car.
While you can’t psychically destroy documents, it’s best to virtually destroy any sensitive information, documents, and customer details and put high security in place for the ones you can’t.
If a breach does happen within your website, the best thing to do is to immediately let your customers know and take action to enhance your security. Also, give support and tips on how your customers may be able to retrieve the stolen funds.
Banking and Financial – Banks and other financial institutes need to take high precaution when it comes to their employee and customer information. Banks take drastic measures to ensure account holders identity is valid and that same information they collect can be the same information that’s stolen to commit identity theft. Also, a person relies on a bank to keep the majority of their finances. Imagine having a customer lose their entire bank account amount because of careless document shredding or none at all.
Other industries that need to focus on document shredding are accounting, law, advertising, investment, schools, and more. Even if your business isn’t in an industry included in this list, your business should be taking safety measures to protect sensitive information as well.
