The laws and standards of regulation have a big impact in handling secured documentation. It can be a nuisance, but it is a necessary one. Companies are obligated to fulfill these standards of practice, but they cannot just stop there. In this corporate climate where individuals are content to sue and governmental institutions are cracking down on small and mid-level business security systems, it is not enough to just follow the law without a paper trail to confirm it. They are even keeping a keen eye on major corporate companies where data leaks have caused serious concerns for not just a couple thousands of customers, but a couple million. The most approachable and systematic way to protect a company is a proof of destruction when shredding private documents. It works as follows.
A company chooses to outsource their shredding because it is easier to manage. Their accommodations are flexible, and they guarantee proper legal shredding of all documents. These entities act as a buffer in the case of a lawsuit, and they keep the focus away from the company and towards the shredding company who is obligated to fit standard practices.
The shredding company has their own security measures. To ensure proper practices are involved everywhere, the shredding company provides a proof of destruction. This is commonly called a Certificate of Destruction. It details two key pieces of information:
- The weight/quantity of documents disposed of
- The details of every container, including the date range of the information
What does this help accomplish? Consider for a moment a data leak that has occurred with a specific customer. They suspect that it may have occurred with the company, and they pursue a lawsuit. Fortunately, the company has a record of what was shredded. Though the actual names are not provided or available (because that would defeat the purpose) it does have dates and weights attached. This is enough to substantiate that the information was disposed of properly and that the security fraud leak has likely come from another source.
We need proof of destruction. Do you provide that? Yes, certificates are supplied for every shredding to protect a company in case of a potential issue with the law.
