5 Kinds of Businesses that Can Benefit from Secure Shredding Services

Data security is an especially important element of a modern business. Customers trust the businesses that they deal with to have a plan in place to keep their private information out of the wrong hands.

Secure shredding is a highly effective means to get rid of paper documents on behalf of businesses. Today, let’s take a look at five kinds of businesses that can benefit from secure shredding.

1. Accounting and Tax Companies

Accounting companies and individual tax professionals are trusted with some of the most important, vulnerable data that there is. Everything from a customer’s Social Security numbers to their annual income can be found in the filing cabinets at these businesses.

While there are legal statutes that define how long some of this information must be kept, it is crucial to get rid of such information as soon as the business is no longer required to maintain it.

2. Legal Entities

and their associates obtain vast amounts of valuable data. Evidence, transcripts from court proceedings, legal records, personal information— these are just a few of the types of information that can be found on legal documents and should be destroyed when it’s no longer needed.

Most law offices are required to keep files for a predetermined amount of time. Once these documents pass that date, North Dakota lawyers should schedule an appointment with a trusted shredding service provider.

3. Banking Institutions

Banks are one of the oldest types of institutions around, and they maintain a vast amount of paperwork about financial transactions. After all, deposit and withdrawal slips, loan applications, and account statements can each contain a wealth of valuable customer data that should not be leaked or misused.

4. Healthcare Services

The law is very clear when it comes to the matter of healthcare documents. Any documents that contain information protected by HIPAA must be wholly destroyed and disposed of properly or the consequences can be dire.

Shredding services can provide an additional level of safety by rendering the information on medical records and documents unreadable, ensuring that they can never be recovered or misused.

5. Educational Institutions

The records kept at the offices of any educational institution contain a great deal of personal information about the students. Their address, Social Security number, and health information are all present in the paperwork at universities.

Many institutes of higher learning are only required to maintain the records of their former students for three years after they leave. After that time, it becomes necessary to destroy most of their records. It is best to schedule a large-scale shredding event at the end of every school year for that purpose.

Businesses that maintain records that contain personal information need to be aware of the dangers posed by storing records that they no longer need. When paper documents and old hard drives are misused, it can damage your company’s reputation, so get rid of them in a secure, practical way.

Businesses that store secure information in Sioux Falls and the surrounding areas of South Dakota should contact SEAM to schedule an appointment. We’ll help you to assess your specific business and let you know what services might best suit your individual needs.