10 Documents That Should Be Taken To A Secure Shredding Service
Document shredding is quickly becoming a key component in protecting privacy. Every business collects vital and sensitive information that could be used for nefarious acts. Thieves can use even the simplest bit of information for identity theft, corporate espionage and other criminal activities. Whether they are clients or employees, keeping confidential data safe by disposing of it properly is essential to a business’s reputation.
When deciding what needs to be shredded, a rule of thumb is usually, destroy anything more than three years old that contains info like address, bank details, name, license plate; there are however ten critical documents that need to be especially careful with because of the information they contain.
1. Financial Statements
Bank statements, stock reports, ATM receipts or anything with information about your finances will generally have an account number, BSB and even an address. This information is readily used by crafty thieves to open accounts in your name and other nefarious purposes which is why they need to be taken to a secure shredding service when they become obsolete.
2. Pay Slips
Payment information can contain employment information, address, income, banking information and tax information. All these things are useful for would-be thieves.
3. Expired Passports And ID
ID cards with name, address and a photo are dangerous. Often they provide access to restricted areas and could give unauthorised persons access.
4. Insurance Records
Insurance records are another gold mine of information for identity thieves.
5. Junk Mail
Everybody has gotten those annoying letters that offer a free credit card with no interest for the first few months then, a million percent interest kicks in, and thieves can apply for these on your behalf and ruin your credit score while you are none the wiser.
6. Medical Records
Contain addresses, name, billing information and a variety of other information that thieves can use.
7. Government Communications
Centrelink letters and bills from the government contain your home address, payment information and a myriad of other personal information you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.
8. Boarding Passes
Can contain, name, birthday, nationality and where you have been. Great for identity thieves looking to commit fraud.
9. Family Photos
A recent phenomenon is thieves passing off pictures as their own, or making online profiles with stolen pictures. Destroying old images after they’ve been digitised is a sure fire way of ensuring nobody else can use them.
10. Old Hard Drives, Media
Laptops, DVDs, CDs, hard drives and tapes could contain business records, secrets etc. Regardless of where the data is stored, when this information becomes obsolete, it needs to be disposed of properly, by securely destroying it with a secure shredding service.
Using a secure shredding service is an essential safeguard against the theft of intellectual property and the protection of sensitive data, and should be used when disposing of any confidential information.
