How to Create a Secure Culture at Your Business

We at Shred America are in the business of improving security for individuals and businesses, and we’ve had many companies enlist in scheduled shredding services with us after an unfortunate company breach occurred. We hear a lot about “could haves” and “should haves” in the aftermath of these problematic incidents occurring.

While you can’t guard every door, we know there’s a lot you can do to keep your business safe from information theft. Many attacks can be avoided when you know what to look for and what habits to implement to keep your business and the information it’s responsible for safe and out of the wrong hands, and it all starts with you.

What are you doing to keep your company safe from information theft? What practices are in place to prevent confidential data left vulnerable? How are you getting your whole team onboard with secure habits? These are the things business owners must think about to create and maintain a culture of security within the company to reduce the threat of attack. Learn more about how to get safe and stay safe below.

How Employee Errors Can Lead to Data Breach

We all get lazy on the job from time to time, but it’s these seemingly small easy-way-outs and it-won’t-happen-to-us kind of shortcuts that often lead to a breach. You may be surprised to find out that internal employees, not outsiders, are often the source of these occurrences that put the company in jeopardy.

We don’t mean malicious employees with an agenda. We mean well-intentioned team members who don’t implement best security practices consistently. In fact, negligent employees account for the majority of concerns companies have about insider threats. A CompTIA survey revealed that human error accounted for 52% of security breaches, a number that could have been avoided by implementing proper practices.

Team-Wide Security: It Starts at the Top

Like most things, if policies and procedures aren’t made and followed by the top, they’re not likely to trickle down. If they do, they probably won’t last long. Business owners have a responsibility to their company and their customers to create and regulate appropriate security practices. It doesn’t stop there, though.

Your entire team, every single step on the ladder, must know and follow these practices every time in order to reduce vulnerability. It only takes one person to let an intruder in the door, literally and figuratively. Figure out where your vulnerable spots are, come up with what works best for your business, and make sure it’s carried out company-wide.

How to Help Your Team Be More Secure with Your Data

Here are some suggestions:

1. Get your whole team informed about the importance of security and clearly establish what the new protocols are. It’s also a good idea to designate a person or small team to spearhead security initiatives.
2. Provide ongoing information to teach employees the latest ways information can be exposed and how to protect it. Most people aren’t aware of how easy it is to be hacked or stolen from.
3. Establish policies about physical protection, not just online protection, such as jotting down sensitive data on a post-it note left on a desk or leaving files in the conference room or kitchen. You never know who’s walking through your office. If you print something confidential and leave it on the printer a few hours, who’s to say someone uninvited won’t walk away with it?
4. Set up a secure disposal process. Throwing away confidential data in a trashcan or recycling receptacle is never a good idea. Partner with a trusted, professional shredding company to destroy documents, hard drives, etc. containing personal information so you never have to worry about it being stolen.

How Scheduled Shredding & Hard Drive Destruction Can Help

When it comes to having data stored on physical items like paper materials, hard drives, disks, thumb drives, etc., the only true way to be secure when disposing of these items is to destroy them completely with a reliable shredding service. Shred America offers scheduled shredding services throughout the southeast. We provide a highly secure, discreet waste bin for the company to keep onsite. The company decides whether they need daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly shredding, and we come straight to the office and complete all shredding and hard drive destruction thoroughly and securely right there on the property. We welcome our clients to watch our shredding process start to finish to see how effective our advanced shredding trucks are, completely destroying all materials so there’s no trace of information left.

This is just one way businesses can stay more secure and protect the information they’re responsible for. To find out more or to get started with a shredding service, contact us today!