Document Destruction and Small Businesses :: recordSHRED

According to recent research results, small businesses seem to be suffering a disproportionate amount of damage with regard to data and security breaches.? This survey, conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center, stated that out of the ?226 of these breaches from 2011 that were examined, approximately 44% of the victims were businesses that listed their assets at under $35 million.? Although monetary claims and damages?are much?higher for?big businesses that experience data breach incidents, such as the recent Sony and Verizon data breaches which involved millions of dollars each, experts seem most concerned about the vulnerability of small businesses for a variety of reasons.? Miami and Dade County are particular areas of concern for authorities due to the high incidences of medical identity theft that have been reported in the region.

First of all, many small companies operate under the misconception that the costs of handling data breaches and security leaks are covered under their general liability insurance policy, which is not the case.? This is especially important with federal and state privacy laws such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act), FACTA (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), and GLBA (Gramm Leach Bliley Act) ? all of which have specific standards and guidelines and have steps that must be taken, such as the notification of those people whose data was exposed ? which is usually not included in a standard general liability insurance policy.

Another security breach misconception that many small businesses believe is that simply having an information technology department on staff, or hiring a professional information technology security consultant reduces the risk.? One just need to take a closer look at the examples cited above involving big business giants Sony and Verizon, both of which employ thousands of information technology specialists, to realize that this is also a fallacy.? It may sound very clich?d, but if the IT departments of these companies are not able to guarantee the safety and security of confidential client data, then it is ludicrous to think that a small department or consultant with limited resources can provide the greatest level of information protection.

Not providing enough employee training and/or trusting employees to know how to protect data are also not safe options for small businesses, as is completely relying on employees to be honest.? It is unfortunate, but according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse database, many data and security breaches have occurred in recent years due to employee theft and other dishonest actions.? Employees who have not been trained in how to treat confidential information and either dispose of it incorrectly or provide unauthorized access in some other way also account for a large percentage of small business security breaches.

One of the most effective ways to protect confidential data in Dade County is to retain the services of a professional document destruction company such as recordSHRED.? recordSHRED has been serving the shredding and data destruction needs of south Florida since 2003, garnering praise for customer service, reliability, security, convenience, and competitive pricing.? For more information on mobile shredding, off-site document destruction, or the many other services available at recordSHRED, please call (305)229-0102 or visit http://recordshred.com/business-shredding/.

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