Shred-it, as a member of the Canadian Fraud Prevention Forum, has identified five everyday paper documents that – if disposed of improperly – can undermine the information security of an organization and its employees, and increase the risk of fraud.
A typical organization generates about 1.5 pounds or almost 0.7 kg of wastepaper per employee each day1. This includes formal business records, like legal and tax paperwork, as well as everyday paper items. These everyday documents can contain highly confidential and sensitive information, but are often overlooked in data protection strategies and are not disposed of properly. The loose records and papers that tend to linger around workstations and offices can subject organizations to fraud and individual employees to identify theft. It's key for businesses of all sizes to recognize that information security risks can originate from a variety of paper documents.
"The first step in protecting your business from the significant financial, legal and reputational damage fraud can cause is to understand all the areas of vulnerability within your organization," says Kevin Pollack, Senior Vice President, Shred-it. "If sensitive information is unintentionally left available to fraudsters, an organization can be exposed to serious information security issues, and the potential for fraud – at both the organizational and individual level – significantly increases."
With the shift towards online storage and a "paperless office", the majority of fraud prevention and data protection strategies focus on protecting digital information. Yet, purging the office of all sensitive and unnecessary paper and records is an important component of a successful fraud mitigation strategy and will protect your business' customers, employees and reputation.
To help businesses embed document management best practices into employee behaviour and encourage frequent document destruction, Shred-it has identified "Five Everyday Documents" that should be shredded to reduce the risk of fraud:
In the hands of fraudsters, the personal and professional information found on a wide range of seemingly harmless slips of paper can open up your organization and your employees to fraud. To help mitigate this risk and educate employees on their roles and responsibilities for data protection, business leaders should train employees on how to properly handle paper documents and encourage frequent destruction of documents. Additionally, implementing information security programs like a Shred-it All Policy and a Clean Desk Policy eliminates the guesswork of what is and isn't confidential and ensures employees don't accidentally leave confidential information in an unsecure bin. As an added environmental benefit, all shredded material is recycled.
(Source: Shred-it)