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Everyone knows how important it is to have strong locks and a quality alarm system to keep your business safe. But what about protecting sensitive information that could be used to harm you, your company, or your employees? This needs to be secured as well \u2013 the average data breach costs $2.8 million \u2013 and the best way to do so is to have documents and files containing such information destroyed regularly.<\/p>\n
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The Risks<\/strong><\/p>\n The risks from information theft include:<\/p>\n Personal Identity Theft<\/strong><\/p>\n Hundred of thousands of Australians are victims of personal identity theft every year and the consequences can be devastating. Using you or your employee\u2019s identity, a thief could empty bank accounts, take out loans, or charge utilities to their assumed identity, plus many more scams.<\/p>\n Business Identity Theft<\/strong><\/p>\n Thieves also target your business identity by stealing or photographing sensitive documents or accessing computer systems. Your business identity can be used to create front companies, lodge phony GST claims, and take out loans under your business name.<\/p>\n Intellectual Property Theft<\/strong><\/p>\n If your company generates intellectual property (IP) information, security should be paramount. Once an idea is stolen and put on the market by a competitor the damage is done, so prevention is the best cure for IP theft.<\/p>\n Legal Ramifications<\/strong><\/p>\n Failing to adequately protect private information could land you in legal trouble. Under a 2014 amendment to Australia\u2019s Privacy Act, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) can issue fines of up to $1.7 million to businesses that fail to protect personal data.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Solution: Document Shredding Services<\/strong><\/p>\n Commercial shredding services minimise sensitive documents and files in your business, greatly reducing the chance of information theft.<\/p>\n There will always be documents you must keep, but the less the better \u2013 protecting one sensitive document is easier than protecting multiple copies.<\/p>\n While working, you and your employees may also produce many unofficial documents \u2013 handwritten notes about customer accounts, sketches and diagrams for a product you wish to patent \u2013 which can also pose security risks.<\/p>\n Retail shredding machines can be purchased, but they are far too inefficient for the document destruction needs of even a small business. They are also less secure as they tend to shred paper in thick strips that could be pieced back together.<\/p>\n A document shredding service, on the other hand, can shred documents quickly and securely. A premium service like ShredEasy will also have destroyed documents pulped and recycled, completely erasing any remaining information.<\/p>\n Shredding services also destroy old uniforms, hard drives, computers, mobile phones, and other items that may contain sensitive information.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n