Identity Theft – Is It All Digital?
Identity theft is a crisis that continues to spread across the United States. It seems as though every night on the news, there is a new story about a data breach, a sizable leak of sensitive material, or a new threat to expose personal information to the ‘black market.’ The University of Texas recently released a publication1 (2017) outlining a wide range of data gathered from 5,000 cases over 15 years.
Here is a summary of what we have taken away from this study and what we can do to help you prevent incidents. Although coverage is focused on Online Data Breaches, non-digital incidents are still more prevalent. According to the aforementioned publication1 (2017), non-digital breaches even happen more often than their digital counterparts.
These non-digital breaches can be as simple as releasing clients’ names or as complex as finding, noting, and releasing SSNs and financial information. It has never been more essential to institute a reliable system to minimize a confidentiality breach and identity theft threat. Shredding On-Site and Records Management Center can partner with your organization to assist in this process by implementing a safe, secure, and compliant information “end of life-cycle” destruction program, including:
- On-Site Shredding
- Why leave sensitive data lying around the office or in a dumpster? Shredding On Site can quickly and thoroughly destroy it for you. We have a fleet of specialized mobile shredding trucks that travel throughout Maine and New Hampshire to shred confidential documents and hard drives through the NAID AAA Certified process for a wide variety of clients.
- With on-site shredding, you can have the added peace of mind that your data is destroyed by watching our highly trained and certified mobile shredding operators shred the documents right at your location. If you would like more information, please call 207-990-4636 or submit a quote request online!
While a quarter of those affected are independent citizens, roughly 60% of incidents are targeted towards healthcare organizations, government offices, schools, or financial service providers. It doesn’t matter whether you are buying something online or creating a report of patient release requests. The authors of ITAP1 (2017) suggest that identity thieves don’t discriminate.
Security should always be on your mind. Records Management Center and Shredding On-Site are here to help. We look forward to working with you and providing NAID AAA Certified shredding and destruction services2 to keep your mind at ease. Don’t hesitate to read more about the process on our website or call our office with any questions.
1 https://identity.utexas.edu/assets/uploads/publications/ITAP-Report-2017.pdf
2 http://www.naidonline.org/nitl/en/cert/history-purpose.html