If your business handles sensitive information in paper or digital form, you must also deal with the disposal of documents. Whether you need to maintain client confidentiality, meet government regulations and standards, or protect proprietary information, these records require destruction after they serve their purpose. Here’s a guide to understanding document destruction methods and how to decide on the best one.
Why Document Destruction Is Important
Document destruction is crucial for several reasons, but the main three are as follows: security, compliance, and reputation. Security is a concern because you need to protect against data breaches, identity theft, and other criminal activities that could abuse misplaced information. Compliance, of course, refers to adhering to the laws, standards, and regulations addressing the privacy of such documents. Finally, thoroughly destroying sensitive documents establishes and sustains client trust in your business.
Common Document Destruction Methods
Here are a few of the more common methods for document and information destruction.
Shredding
Every office likely has a shredder or a contract with a shredding service. Shredding is one of the most popular document destruction methods. It involves cutting paper into small pieces, making it nearly impossible to reconstruct the original document. Cross-cut or micro-cut shredders are especially good at hindering readability.
Incineration
As one of the original methods for document destruction, incineration involves burning documents until they are reduced to ash. This method is highly effective for eliminating sensitive information. However, it requires specialized equipment and adherence to environmental regulations.
Pulping
Pulping mixes paper with water or chemicals to break it down into a slurry. The resulting pulp may be recycled into new paper products. This secure and environmentally friendly method also requires special equipment and likely off-site destruction.
Degaussing
Obviously, not all information is on paper. Degaussing is incredibly effective at wiping out information on electronic storage devices, such as hard drives, servers, and thumb drives. A powerful magnet disrupts the magnetic fields on storage devices, rendering the data unreadable.
Digital Shredding
Getting a bit more high-tech, digital shredding is a software-based method for destroying electronic documents. It overwrites the data on the device multiple times, ensuring it cannot be recovered. Businesses that rely heavily on digital storage will find this especially useful.
What’s the Right Method for Your Business?
Before picking a destruction method, ask yourself the following questions:
- How much information do you need to destroy and how often?
- How sensitive is the information?
- Do federal or local rules and regulations dictate the methods you can use?
- Do you have a budget?
- How adversely will the method affect the environment?
Consider these answers as you shop around for a document destruction company and ask them to provide details on their processes. When you do select a company, you should get a certificate of destruction as proof that the job is done and done right.
That’s a brief guide to understanding document destruction methods. Implement these strategies today to keep your business secure and compliant!
