Hints and Tips – Document Management News

Why Hard Drive Destruction Is Essential To Protect You Against Fraud

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Pm_blog_user Posted in Hints and Tips, Information Leave a comment

Why Hard Disk Drive Destruction Is Necessary

Which? Computing magazine purchased eight computers on eBay and recovered 22,000 “deleted” files from them using software which is freely available and relatively easy to use by someone with quite basic computer skills.

Criminals source hard disk drives from computers found on rubbish tips, auction sites or purchased through the internet, many of which the owners believe they have deleted or wiped the content. Drives acquired in this way can be a rich source of information about you, your company, your customers and suppliers and provide the criminal with the necessary information to commit identity theft, fraud or simply steal and sell on information.

The only way to be sure your data is gone is to remove the hard drives from the computer and smash the magnetic platters inside which are the surfaces where the data is held.

Why Destroying Hard Disk Drives Yourself Isn’t As Satisfying As It Looks

Hard Drive Destruction – The Hard Way To Do It

There are a lot of self help tutorials on the internet on how to do this which involve hammers, spikes, saws, grinders and a variety of other tools which although cheap and presumably very satisfying to do have a number of drawbacks:

They are time consuming and the time spent crushing, cutting and breaking is probably better spent doing something else.
It is not office friendly to destroy hard drives in this way.
There is a risk of injury from sharp metal and plastics so personal protection equipment should be used.
Smashing hard drives could release toxic materials into the atmosphere.
The drives fall under weee regulations and need to be disposed of in a compliant manor.
Once smashed you have to find a way to recycle them so as to meet you green targets.

PaperMountains Hard Drive Destruction Service

If you don’t want to go through all the hassle of handling your own hard disk drive destruction give our experienced team a call on 0808 281 1100 and we will securely destroy your hard drives, tapes and media to BSEN 15713 standard in our industrial shredders which leave them with the platters shattered and the data they contain unreadable and unrecoverable.

A hard drive waiting destruction resting on a pile of shredded hard drives

PaperMountains Hard disk drive destruction service will recycle the materials in a compliance with weee regulations and issue with a certificate of destruction for your records and peace of mind. To find out more about our had disk drive destruction service visit https://www.papermountains.com/hard-disk-drive-shredding-hdd or call Freephone 0808 281 1100 today.

Not Just Hard Drives

As well as destroying hard disk drives PaperMountains can destroy tapes, disks, cd’s and other electronic media to put your data beyond the reach of criminals and fraudsters.

PaperMountains Destruction Of Hard Drives, Tapes and Other Media

Five Benefits of Off-Site Document Storage

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Stevie Fill Posted in Hints and Tips Leave a comment

1. Protection in case of damage to offices

Within an ordinary office there could be many hazards that would threaten the safety of your documents. This could be anything from theft to fire or water damage. If anything were to happen to your offices, it may bring peace of mind to know that all of your important documents are held in a safe place.

2. Well Protected

A purpose-built document storage facility will have many levels of security, ensuring that your documents are completely secure. For example, the PaperMountains Document Archiving facility has doors that can be both physically locked as well as accessible only to those with the correct electronic access requirements.

3. Cost Efficient

In comparison to the equivalent office space, the cost of storing one box of documents off site is much lower. By storing all rarely used documents you then open up a variety of options about the emptied space. You could even store all of your office documents and recall or scan documents as and when you need them.

4. Space Saving

Office space can be expensive and so it makes sense to use the space to its best advantage. Instead of storage, the emptied space could be used to extend the business, bring in additional income through renting it out, or even save money completely by downsizing the office.

5. Low risk of document loss

When you pack away your documents for storage a database is made of where exactly you place the documents. Once the boxes are in storage they are not touched until you recall them, which means you will always know where your documents are.

6. Longevity of documents

A document storage company will know the exact best conditions to store paper in order to extend their life. This includes the temperature and relative humidity of the room as well as how they should be packed. For more information on the factors we take into account check out “How to Protect your Archived Documents in The Colder Months.”

7. Easy Recall

As your boxes are entered into storage they are given a unique code with which they are then identified. Here at PaperMountains this code is also attached to a bar code which is then scanned every time it is moved or recalled, ensuring a fully auditable process. This bar code also ensures that at any one time a box can be found right down to its place on a shelf or pallet, meaning the recall of boxes is as fast and efficient as it could be.

8. Single purpose warehouse

When you use a document storage company, you know that the room in which your documents are stored is used only for the storage of documents, as opposed to a multipurpose office. This means that the environment is constant, which allows for the best life of paper. It also means that there is no risk of your documents being compromised.

7 Potential Security Breaches Hidden In Your Office.

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Stevie Fill Posted in Hints and Tips Leave a comment

As the home base of your business you would expect your office to be secure. However in this day and age the number of potential risks for security breaches is higher than it’s ever been. The following are just some of the potential risks to your business as well as some of the potential solutions.

1. Recycling bins

Sometimes important documents fall into recycling bins rather that the pile for confidential destruction. This could be because your employee wasn’t aware of its significance, doesn’t have a destruction pile or it could even have been in the wrong pile to begin with. No matter the reason, having potentially damaging documents in an open and unsecure recycling bin remains a data protection risk. You also cannot guarantee that the document is destroyed at any point. To prevent this kind of mistake it could be worth including a destruction clause into your data protection policy that involves all office paper waste be shredded. At the very least it would be worth ensuring there is a secure destruction console within the office, if not one for every desk, to make sure that all personnel have access to the facilities when they need them. Most document destruction companies will recycle the shredded paper, so it is still good for the environment. Having a lockable destruction console within the office will mean that all paperwork is destroyed whilst also being safe from prying eyes until it is.

2. Untidy desks

If you have an untidy desk, are you likely to notice if one document goes missing? Can you control who has access to your desk and the documents on it? Can you guarantee that any of the papers on your desk aren’t confidential and private and will not fall into the wrong hands? If the answer to any of these questions is no then it is time for action. Documents should be filed away unless they’re being consulted, preferably in a lockable drawer or cabinet. Of course in an ideal world the office would be paperless, as this is better for the environment and more secure however this is not always possible. In the cases where it is possible the best way forward would be to use an Electronic Management System combined with an on going scanning practice which would allow you to constantly update your systems as well as keep control of who has access to which document.

3. Out of date retention policies and lack of data protection understanding

One of the biggest potential security breaches comes from not maintaining the business data protection and retention policies. Not only do they need to be regularly updated and pruned to coincide with current legislation, they also need to be kept in the forefront of your employees minds through maintained training and understanding. Without this it can be very easy to fall into the same routine and 6 months down the line find out the legislation you’ve been working to has become obsolete. At PaperMountains we have a team who are able to advise you on these matters, as well as aid in the implementation of these policies. We also have our own Free Document Retention Guide so you can be better aware of how long documents should be kept before being destroyed.

4. Working from home

Although this risk isn’t within the office, it can still have consequences for your business. If your employees work from home, how many documents are they likely to leave there? If the document is no longer needed what do they do with it? They may know it needs to be destroyed securely but would this translate to documents at home? Or would they simply put them in the recycling. The same issues that apply to mobile devices can also apply to home computers. Can you be sure it is protected against malware and viruses? Is it secure and encrypted? To prevent breaches you should make sure all employees know the policies, even have a copy of them at home. It might also be worth the employee having a console for destruction at home, depending on how often they are there and what kind of documents they work with. Organising a regular “bring your device to work” day may also help prevent breaches through viruses and malware.

5. Printers

If your office has one or more shared printers that don’t require authentication before printing the documents, you may be at risk of a security breach. How often have you printed something and then become side-tracked on your way to the printer? Or had to take a call and forgotten your papers were there? These scenarios mean leaving documents that could be confidential, unsecured and unattended. By having individual printers or pin-protected printing, you eliminate this risk. In an ideal world of course the best option would be to forgo printing the documents at all however this is sometimes unavoidable.

mobile_security

6. Mobile devices and portable drives

This all comes down to how secure the device is. If, for example, a member of staff puts certain documents on to a USB drive to work from home with, can it be absolutely guaranteed that this drive won’t be lost or stolen? If it is, will others be able to gain access to the files? Is it password protected and encrypted? The same can be said for mobile devices used to access online work systems. Are they protected against malware, viruses and other malicious content? Does the device remember passwords for instant access? These are the kind of things you may need to take into account when formulating data protection policies within your business because it only takes one mistake for a business to crumble.

7. Old office equipment

You may not think of old office equipment and technology as a data risk, especially if the reason for the replacement is because of a fault, however if the equipment is not properly wiped and disposed of the information it holds could be recovered and this the cause of a data leak. To prevent this, rather than simply deleting files and emptying the recycling bin, always make sure to wipe the drives either using a degausser or through software that completely overwrites everything. The most secure of these methods is to use a degausser, as even the software has a slight chance of being recovered by a determined, experienced hacker. Physically destroying the drives is also a safe way of disposal, as long as it is done to the correct standards.

Five Benefits to Outsourcing Your Document Destruction

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Stevie Fill Posted in Hints and Tips Leave a comment

Having an office clear out is not always an easy thing, especially if it involves cleaning out the filing cabinets. It may seem like the best way to go about it is to have a member of staff feed the paper through an office shredder however this is not always the best way. It can be costly and time-consuming, as well as non-compliant to data protection laws. By outsourcing the destruction you will…

1. …Demonstrate Compliance with Data Protection Obligations

The British Standard for Confidential Destruction (BS EN 15713) ensures that all documents are destroyed to the same standard and given the same protection. The standard ensures things such as having security vetted staff to handle the documents, tracked and CCTV covered vans to transport them, and specific sizes of shred to ensure complete destruction.

The documents you shred using a service will also have a clear chain of custody that allows you to track exactly who has handled them and where they’ve been right up until they are destroyed. From there, certification of destruction may be given to prove the documents have been destroyed.

2. …Save time, effort and money.

Where shredding in-house may involve one or more members of staff taking time out of their regular work to shred the documents, using a shredding service means all you have to do is call up and arrange a collection. This combined with the fact that small shredders will often only have a limited continuous run time before burning out will save you time and money in the long run.

3. …Maintain confidentiality within the office.

The problem with having a member of staff shredding the documents at your office is that they then have access to information that could be sensitive or confidential. This could be anything from payroll information and employee contracts to customer records. The lack of confidentiality could be harmful to your business and the best way to avoid this is to hire someone specifically to destroy your documents for you.

4. …Add to your green credentials.

Because a shredding service can prove they recycle all of your destroyed documents, any certification you get from them can go towards your companies green credentials.

5. …Get rid of the Hassle.

When you out source your destruction it also means you are outsourcing the disposal of the shredded paper. This means no messy changing of bins or small pieces of paper floating around the office.