The Importance of Data Destruction for Businesses

When starting up your very own small business, it is important to do thorough research into legal areas in relation to your type of business. There will also be legislation that applies to all businesses including laws relating to the privacy and confidentiality of your clients and their information. Taking this information into consideration will help to secure the long term future of your company and safeguard its reputation.

Doing business with clients and customers requires the transfer of important information such as names, contact details and payment details. It is vital that this information is kept secure to prevent criminals accessing it for fraudulent purposes. Allowing this data to get into the wrong hands could lead to a lawsuit and seriously damage the reputation of your company.

If you choose to store this data, make sure it is completely secure and only employees that you trust have access to it. When it comes to the time where this data is no longer needed, it will need to be destroyed. The method of destruction will depend upon the method of storage. For hard drives, this will require the process of degaussing, which permanently alters the magnetic fields inside to render the data unrecoverable.

Paperwork can either be burnt or shredded, or a combination of both. With small amounts of paperwork, a personal shredder should suffice. However, if your business has stored up significant amounts, it may be more worthwhile outsourcing this to an external paper shredding company. The best way to figure this out is to do some rough calculations of how long it might take your employee to carry out the task multiplied by their wage and compare it to the cost of hiring the services of a professional shredding company.

There are several other reasons why you may choose to outsource including the opportunity cost of the employee who is tasked with shredding. Clearly, you would have hired this employee for other skills and purposes than that of shredding paper and it may be better for you to outsource this mundane task to allow this employee to concentrate on their job. In addition, shredding companies are thoroughly experienced and some will be able to take care of both digital media as well as paperwork. Some will also give certification that the data has been destroyed to meet legal requirements, which can be very important to prove that you have carried out the job to a sufficient standard.

With the global economy currently struggling, it is important to keep costs low and the most cost-effective method will always be thought of. However, the most vital part of data destruction is that the job is done right to prevent criminal fraud and to secure the reputation of your company.