Are Document Shredding Services Really Important? They Are If You Want To Avoid Identity Theft

Document destruction services

You always put your business in the right hands.

How do you achieve this? Relying on smart B2B strategies, for one. Urging your employees to practice safe habits every day, for another. Your brand is worth quite a bit of money and something you don’t need to put at unnecessary risk…so why would you potentially have your private information fall in the wrong hands? On site shredding is a service that’s more than just another box to check off for your business. It’s a tried-and-true method of disposing of your sensitive documents and ensuring your information is never used against you.

Let’s make sure 2018 isn’t the year where you make one of the smallest, and most devastating, mistakes a business can make.

What are the biggest risks you can face when you don’t rely on on site shredding services? Identify theft, for one. Financial theft is another. As far as statistics are concerned identity theft is the single fastest growing crime in the nation, raking in over $50 billion every year and only continuing to expand the more ignorant businesses remain to common risk factors. Between 2015 and 2016 incidences of identity theft jumped up 16%, so it would be nothing short of ridiculous to think a few more careful efforts toward safety would hurt any.

Your chances of becoming the victim of identity theft is higher than you think. The Federal Trade Commission has found there is a one out of 33 chances you could have your identity stolen within the next year. As you can imagine, a business having its information stolen is all the more devastating for the dozens, even hundreds, of people involved. Every year in the United States sees corporate identity theft costing businesses over $48 billion, affecting managers, employees and customers alike. When you reach out to professional shredding companies, you put a necessary barrier between you and these paltry chances.

Did you know businesses were affected by a collective 300 data breaches back in 2015? This affected a staggering 16 million people, with some businesses simply going belly up after too heavy a loss. This same year saw medical and healthcare facilities affected by 275 data breaches, affecting over 110 million people and creating a serious backlog in an already sensitive field. According to dat provided by the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, government documents as well as benefits fraud were the most common form of reported identity theft. What does this mean for you?

When you get rid of documents you just don’t need them anymore. That doesn’t mean prying eyes can’t find an alternate use for them. It’s thought as many as 90% of identity theft uses information gained from printed sources rather than digital, with simple negligence having consequences that can roll on for years. Paper shredding services are keen on making sure not a slip of paper falls in the wrong hands, relying on a mixture of classic methods and up-to-date means of completely and utterly disposing of any documents brought to their building.

Not only will you have the peace of mind that comes with on site shredding services, you’ll also be doing your part to contribute to a greener industry. The majority of shredding companies are quite keen on recycling paper and creating less hazardous waste, a mutually beneficial arrangement for their brand and any business tired of spending excess on paper month after month. Even if you’re considering making the shift from paper documents to cloud storage, paper shredding services will remain a necessary resource for many years to come. Secure document destruction shredding isn’t being paranoid.

It’s being smart.

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