Author Archives: Security in Shredding

About Security in Shredding

Specialising in secure confidential document shredding services with a reputation for exceptional security, customer service. Delivering value for money and the utilisation of leading technology compliant to the highest security standards within the industry.

8 Interesting Facts, You Must Know About Data Destruction

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Security in Shredding Logo. 2014.

Protecting your confidential data comes in many forms. Confidential shredding is one form of data protection for businesses in Limerick and or Galway.

Maybe the business of shredding services won’t appeal to everyone. But if you ask the number of companies availing of paper shredding limerick, you would be seriously surprised by knowing the benefits and the business profits they are making from utilising a professional data shredding service.

Well, as I will explain to you, shredding companies destruct the information from company’s paper & electronic waste and recycle the same for their re usability in making newspaper, egg cartons and kitchen roll. After running some R&D, I have gathered some of the interesting facts you must know about shredding.

  • When 1 ton of paper waste is recycled, it actually saves 17 trees, 7000 Gallons of water and 4000 KW of energy. Also must be mentioned the land they accommodate to do so. The 17 trees are enough to consume 250 lbs of CO Way to Go!!

 

  • In 1988, when US top court quoted that any personal waste once thrown in the public bins will be under government authorities. Home shredding machines took a steep growth in sales.

 

  • Want to be one of the confidential shredding specialists? Well, to destruct anything you need to be certified to do so in line with European and Irish Standards. Simply providing a certificate of destruction is no longer good enough as any Company can simply construct a cert of destruction.

 

  • Some of the advanced machines are capable converting your A4 size paper into 100s of tiny pieces up to a minimum size of 3mm!! Within The EN 15713 shredding standard there are shred sizes, the most professional and secure shredding providers can offer various shred sizes from No. 1 right up to No. 8.

 

  • In 1979, The US embassy was attacked by some Iranian revolutionaries in order to retrieve their identity documents. As the documents were shredded in strips only, it was easy to retrieve info from them. These urged the need of cross cut shredders and were developed instantly after.

 

  • With the rise in technology, standard cross cut shredders can be reconstructed, it is advised that Shred Size No. 6 (320 mm squared particles) is the ideal shred for security and beyond reconstruction.

 

  • Last but not the least; Abbot Augustus Lowe founded the first ever shredding machine in 1909. Though it wasn’t massive, the latest of our shredders work on the derived principles of that machine.

Thought provoking info for Confidential Shredding Specialists and Paper Shredding Service users. For more information on our confidential shredding service, please email us at : info@securityinshredding.com

Why Outsource Paper Shredding? Galway Region

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Security In Shredding on site service

Are you looking for confidential shredding specialists in Galway? There are numerous paper shredders upon the marketplace for in-house destruction, but a precise one is only one that provides an audit-able and accountable trail for the client in addition to providing professional advice for your other documents or data which require to be securely destroyed.

If you are working in an organisation and have documents that are confidential and sensitive but you are unable to keep them anymore a professional data destruction service provider is the best option for you. It becomes essential to shred them through a confidential shredding service provider instead of inserting them in traditional recycling streams. Moreover, it’s difficult for you to keep all these documents safe in a secure location as it would cause a space management issue.

The best method to dispose – of all confidential data that is no longer required is to avail of the confidential paper shredding service of Galway Security in Shredding. Shredding service not only destroys confidential documents that are no longer required, but also assists in space management and ensures compliance with legislation on a data protection level and a waste management level. Outsourcing some professional shredding service will be a great choice for your confidential shredding requirements due to the following reasons

Security

Shred your confidential data in a specific and efficient manner. Paper shredding Galway is a service provider providing its eminent services which include paper shredding, document destruction, product shredding, hard – drive shredding and media shredding, and confidential waste disposal which is accessible across the Galway and Ireland region.

Price value

In – house shredding saves your money? Shredding services through a service provider are 25 – 40% inexpensive than in-house shredding which not only saves your money, but also provides a trustworthy appearance of the service provider and accountability for the client.

Environment

Confidential paper shredding services of Galway provides a featured service that disposes all the shredded data and destructed material at safe and allotted recycling facilities without any extra charges.

All material returns to the market as kitchen paper and other recycled products.

For more information email us at: info@securityinshedding.com

On Site Shredding Benefits For Limerick & Galway Businesses

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Security In Shredding on site service
When it comes to data protection, confidential shredding of your documents should be incorporated as part of your business day to day. Limerick & Galway regions can also benefit from our on site shredding service.
On Site shredding provides a secure shredding process to your business and also a number of other benefits for your business such as:
  1. We can provide a “Scheduled Basis” On Site Shredding
  1. “On Call Service” Client calls and sets a date for out team to
  1. “Clear Out Shredding” For large quantity of document destruction

 

The Data Protection Commissioner

There are many reasons for your business to incorporate a confidential shredding service. Firstly it’s the law; The Data Protection Act ensures that businesses and organisations maintain that the data stored by them is protected to a standard set by the DPC.
More details regarding data security and method to improve your data security can be read on the DPC site; Data Security Guidlines

How Confidential Shredding Can Help

When it comes to data protection, minimising the risk of data breaches is essential for businesses to continue in operation. As mentioned above it’s the law but also data breaches can be hugely damaging to a companies reputation. If people are aware of a business or organisations data breach, people will not use that service or switch to a competitor good or service. All it can take is one breach for this to occur.
Along with compliance with the law, there are a number of reasons why your business benefit from confidential shredding services, reasons such as:
  • Prevent information leaks and breaches of security
  • Reduces your risk from improperly discarded documents
  • Reduces risk of identity theft
  • Reduces your risk of recovery
  • Reduces your storage costs
  • Saving employee time from document shredding
  • Minimum time used for speedy efficient shredding service
  • Affordable and cost effective
  • Become an active business in protecting the environment

 

On Site & Confidentiality

Our on site shredding service will provide you and your business a secure method of destruction. The shredding process is monitored to ensure that the documents are destroyed and our on board systems ensure that this process is done correctly. The added bonus of the truck being on site, is that you get to see your documents go from the bin to shred on your premises. Giving you the confidence that your documents are destroyed in a safe and secure manor.

For more information on our on site shredding and or any other services we provide, please check out our site or feel free to contact one of our shredding specialists.

Email us at: info@securityinshredding

Mobile Devices – Dangers & Destruction Method

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apple-iphone-smartphone-desk

At Security In Shredding protecting your data is essential for businesses and organisations to succeed. Our On Site shredding services are available throughout the Limerick and Galway regions.

It is perceived that one’s personal information held on Smart Technology Devices (wireless technology) is deleted when being sold or sent for recycling, but in fact sensitive data for example your banking details, passwords, contact information and much more are stored on hand held devices and when such information is not removed effectively it will end up in the hands of the end user.

Even though you take careful precautions regarding deleting information on PC’s or laptops, many neglect to implement these precautions with their hand held devices.With this in mind the percentage of the international population using Smart technologies is continuously increasing.

More Smartphones Than People Today

The increase in the use of Smartphones coupled with the lack of user knowledge in relation to Data Protection has made them attractive targets for attackers to obtain by means of second-hand sales via internet sites and recycled phones etc. The number in addition to the sophistication of the attacks made on mobile devices are increasing and measures to counteract these attacks are slow to catch up.

Smart technologies have not kept up in the security technology pace as with other traditional computer security. There are little or no firewalls, antivirus etc. available for the user to use to increase privacy controls. A huge percentage of Smart technology users, use social networking sites and upload a wealth of personal information on such sites. As stated in my previous posts, “Data is worth money in today’s environment”.

“A recent study by life assistance company CPP found that 54% of second-hand phones contained personal data. During the research it purchased 35 mobiles and found personal information such as text messages, emails and even bank details on 19 of them. In addition, 50 SIM cards were purchased, with 27 containing similar information, and this is despite 81% of users claiming that they delete all personal data.”

Bullguard Article on Smart Technologies

It is imperative that everybody understands the dangers associated with assuming ones personal data is removed from his/her device. The only way one has true and complete piece of mind is to shred the device. There are many services available to the public in relation to Professional Data Destruction, and Knowledge is Key to your personal data security.

If you have any queries regarding Data Protection, please do not hesitate to contact Security In Shredding as we are more than happy to provide free expert advise.

Email us at: info@securityinshredding.com

Limerick & Galway Businesses The BYOD Risks & Gains

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BYOD policy

A Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy has a number of benefits for your business or organisation. Businesses in Limerick & Galway along with a confidential shredding policy. Electronic devices have security features enabled as standard and having staff use their own devices can be a cost effective method for day to day business.

People will tend to look after their own devices better. While this is another benefit there are risks involved and it is worth knowing the risks involved if you decide to incorporate such a policy.

Ownership

Many of these issues arise because of the main characteristic of BYOD that the employee owns and to some extent maintains and supports the device. As a result, the you will have much less control over the device in comparison to a device owned by your business.

An employer will need to address these BYOD issues before enabling employees to bring their own devices to work. These issues include, for example, ensuring that work data will not be merged with an employee’s personal data, that non-employees, such as family members who use the device, do not access work data and, for example, what happens when an employee loses a device or resigns.

In seeking to implement a BYOD solution it is important to identify business objectives and benefits as well as taking into account security, audit and data protection requirements. Department heads such as IT, HR and managers should develop a BYOD policy covering security issues and terms of use.

For more information on data protection and guidance on digital data protection visit the Data Protection Commissioner site for a detailed guide.

BYOD business policy

If your business decides to use a BYOD policy, then informing your employees of the separation of data between business and personal data.

Data security is a prime concern for employers and importantly BYOD should not introduce vulnerabilities into existing secure environments.

Employers should also consider the use of a sandbox or ring-fencing of data, such as by keeping data contained within a specific app, as well as ensuring that, if the device is lost, the data on it is kept confidential and retained via a backup facility.

In terms of legal risk, losing employee or client data could result in the company breaching the Data Protection Act which could leave the company vulnerable to legal claims brought by the employee or client in question or a fine imposed by the DPC.

To address the data protection and security breach risks, the DPC guidance recommends companies consider the following:

  • Which type of corporate data can be processed on personal devices
  • How to encrypt and secure access to the corporate data
  • How the corporate data should be stored on the personal devices
  • How and when the corporate data should be deleted from the personal devices
  • How the data should be transferred from the personal device to the company servers

Security

The DPC also recommends installing antivirus software on personal devices, providing technical support to the employees on their personal devices when they are used for business purposes and having in place a “BYOD Acceptable Use Policy” providing guidance to users on how they can use their own devices to process corporate and personal data. It should also be clear to employees that they can only process corporate personal data for corporate purposes.

The DPC also highlights the BYOD risks associated with increased monitoring at work by the technical measures that the company could put in place in order to ensure the security of the company data processed by the employees on their personal devices.

Ensuring fail safes are in place, in the unlikely event of theft or loss. Enabling geo-location, remote access, two step verification. A reputable anti-virus software can provide for such an event. Remembering prevention is better than cure.

Confidential Shredding Limerick & Galway

At Security In Shredding, data protection is paramount to our day to day operation. Confidential shredding services regularly destroy any and all unwanted documents your business may have accumulated.

Ensuring that data security is being maintained is important for you and for our us. For more information on our shredding services you can,

Email us at: info@securityinshredding.com

Fight Identity Theft With The Help Of Confidential Shredding Specialists

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Paper Shredding, Secure DestructionConfidential Shredding in Limerick & Galway is one way of ensuring, a person’s identity is of serious security among the working class because it is responsible for significantly important aspects of people’s lives. Due to modernisation, social media sites are becoming main sources for displaying information. But other than that, documents are one of the most rampant modes of identity display to malicious people and it may be disclosed to a third party causing you business harms.

The only solution to get rid of this problem is to destroy these documents if they are no longer in use of concerned authorities. Although there are many ways to destroy these documents but the best way is document destruction from confidential shredding specialists. Other than that, these two amazing tips are definitely going to help you in winning the fight against identity theft.

  • Ensure that you have hired a certified company to shred your important documents

Most of the entrepreneurs and corporate people have to deal with large volumes of documents. Hence, it’s recommended that they must hire shredder for the secure handling of sensitive documents that are no longer required for use. In order to ensure maximum security, it is better to hire a destruction company that is certified and works with compliance of all national standards for secure destruction. The only reason behind this fact is that the approved shredding companies are recognised for their genuine, professional and compliant work for their clients through their confidential destruction services.

  • For extremely sensitive documents, on-site shredding is suggested

The way from where identity crime starts is personal documents and data. It’s not obligatory that identity would be physical only; it can be in the form of a signature also. Your signature is embraced on various papers such as property documents, wills, shares, bank forms, medical claim documents, etc. and a breach can copy your signature which may empty your pockets. Due to this reason, it’s very significant to always be alert on how to handle such documents that are no longer required in order to stay away from such cases.

  • Select a technically configured destruction service

About the shredding service, every individual has the same perspective that it should be a time confined service provider. Once called, they should arrive at their location within the promised time. With a remarkable response time, security in shredding provides mobile services and are confidential shredding specialists that enables you to verify your data destruction process with the help of on-board monitor screen showing the destruction.

 

Why Outsource The Shredding Of Documents?

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harddrive destruction, Media Destruction, Confidential Shredding Service

Are you an Entrepreneur in Galway or Limerick?, confidential shredding is available for confidential on site shredding.

have you ever wondered how paper shredding can save you from company data breaches while justifying the cost for such a shredding service, your approach of secure data paper shredding towards confidential shredding through a professional accredited service vendor which can only save your company from breaching sensitive data? What does the ‘confidential’ mean in paper destruction?

It signifies security in shredding, destruct the data and documents under secure atmospheres and completed by security screened paper shredding personnel. Buying your own in-house shredding machines can never destroy your private papers and data completely and securely with efficiency and accountability.

 

The following are some internal costs an individual can eliminate if he/she outsources the shredding from professional paper shredders

  • Payroll cost of the employee for the time spent feeding the office shredding machine
  • Data Protection Training fees for employees in charge of data destruction
  • Manual Handling Training fees for employees in charge of data destruction
  • Acquiring cost of high-level shredding machine is not probable to manage for a middle-class business entrepreneur
  • Recycling fee for material to be recycled and receive certification of compliance
  • Time spent in removing the paper clips and staples to shred in paper shredding machines
  • Regular maintenance cost of office paper shredding machine
  • Extra cleanup time, as paper shredding machine generates dust on shred
  • Extra cost of disposing of the large volume of shredded documents
  • Who decides what is to be destroyed and not destroyed?.

It may be probable to purchase a small and lower PPM (pages per minute) shredding machine which may lead to the loss of an employee’s working day from what you have hired him/her for and evenly that document shredding machine can never provide and transparent clear audit trail.

What about unused data that have been left on electronic media (USB or hard drive, CDs, DVDs, etc.)? Sometimes, an entrepreneur may buy a small destruction machine for document shredding and/or drill a hole through the Hard Drive. The methods above are not appropriate for secure data destruction from electronic devices as the data remains on the device.

An appropriate method for the secure destruction is to avail of a confidential shredding Galway & Limerick which ensures compliance.

Paper Shredding Galway & Limerick is your number one choice for data destruction

7 Wi-fi Security Improvements To Aid Data Protection

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BYOD policy

Data protection comes in many forms. While our confidential shredding in Limerick & Galway regularly operate a highly secure paper destruction service. It is however, hugely important to protect all forms of data both physical and digital.

Wi-fi networks both public and private networks (more so with public) have greater potential of data breaches or hacks. These hacks could be harmful to your device and also gain access to private or secure files.

Below is a list of steps to improve your Wi-fi data security:

 

1. Change The Default Name Of The Wireless Network

Hackers will prey on human error to gain access to networks. A router received from your internet provider will run on default settings. If these settings are not changed, hackers will use this to gain access to networks.

In case the SSID is not modified, a hacker has a better chance of breaking into a network, simply by knowing the manufacturer of the router. Use this guide to make the necessary changes.

Ideally change the name to something unique and NOT to use your own and or company name as the new network name.

 

2. Password Length = Strength

Again if using default settings on the router the default password can be gained if hackers know the default name.

When choosing a password, it is recommended that the password length is:

  • 15 – 20 characters
  • Contain Numbers
  • Contain Upper Case
  • Contain Special Characters

Avoid using “123456” and or “password” which is used more often than not. A random sequence of letters, numbers and characters is secure but harder to remember. If the password is unique and not repeated and contains the criteria mentioned, It will improve the password security.

Use this Wiki guide to setup a strong password for your network.

 

3. Enabling Network Encryption

There are a few popular encryption options for wireless networks, like WEP, WPA and WPA2. The latter form of encryption – WPA2 – is preferred for its improved security and especially if you have a home network.

The option to encrypt traffic is useful if you need to make your communication signals unusable for any unauthorised third party software.

 

4. Power Off When Not In Use

This option is useful especially when leaving home for extended periods of time, for holiday leave or for a few days.

This security measure, besides helping you to reduce power consumption, it will surely stop any hackers that could “listen” to your network’s traffic or might try to access it for malicious purposes.

 

5. Where The Router Is Stored Physically

Storing the router in a central location of the house or office will ensure even spread of connection and limits the hackers access to the wireless network.

For this reason, don’t place it too close to a window, from where the signal can be easily accessed from outside, even at some distance, and you may also follow our fourth rule to disable the router when leaving your home.

 

6. Administrator Default Settings

To set up your wireless router, usually you need to access an online platform or web page, where you can make modifications to your network settings.

As everybody knows, it is something normal to find a router with default credentials such as “admin” and “password”. And these default login credentials are not so difficult to break by a hacker.

Most changes we do on an online platform are things like setting a strong password for the wireless network or changing the network’s name, both changes being made to ensure a greater level of protection from online criminals’ malicious actions.

 

7. Update Router Software Regularly

Your router like any software device should be maintained and updated regularly.

The problem is that most routers don’t have the option to install the latest security updates and from time to time you need to check the official website for security fixes.

We must not forget that some of the worst security breaches came from security holes in unpatched programs and operating systems.

For more information on data protection and the laws governing them. The DPC has guidelines for your data security needs; Data Protection Commissioner Guidelines

For more information on confidential shredding,

email us at: info@securityinshredding.com

Methods To Improve Data Security, Galway & Limerick

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Data protection service AND DATA DESTRUCTION

Data Security is hugely important to businesses and organisations. Confidential shredding experts are readily available to handle and destroy your documents thus providing data security. Paper or document shredding is one method of data security but digital data is also important to protect.

Among US firms, reports only 2.4 percent of the organisations that experienced a breach had encryption or other strong protection methods in use, and only 8.5 percent of the breached information was password protected.

Which begs the question why aren’t more organisations password protecting and encrypting data? Some are complacent, while others falsely believe their data is already properly protected. Another is that some organisations fear having to spend large sums of money and time on new software or hardware to properly encrypt data.

Start With a Good Data Protection Policy

A good data protection policy involves just five things:

  1. Instituting good security and privacy policies for collecting, using and storing sensitive information.
  1. Using strong encryption when storing information on computers and laptops.
  1. Limiting who has access to sensitive information.
  1. Safely purging old or outdated sensitive information.
  1. Having an incident response plan in case a breach occurs.

In addition to the above, organisations should have firewalls, anti-spyware and antivirus protection in place and kept up to date; refrain from using wireless networking technologies (WiFi) where applicable; and truncate data so that sensitive information is not used where it is not needed.

Above all, make sure you have secure, encrypted ways of obtaining and storing sensitive information — and employ encryption protocols and encrypt all sitting / stored data.

Data Destruction & Data Encryption

Encrypt, Encrypt, Encrypt

Encryption has become a keyword regarding digital devices. Smartphones are now encrypted as standard and recent events have caused governing bodies to enquire with the smartphone companies to give them access as the encryption prevents them from doing so.

Laptops, mobile devices and USB’s can have disk encryption on them but due to their physical size, the devices can be target to theft and or lost easily. This form of encryption can be more expensive to purchase.

Software applications such as WhatsApp and now Facebook messenger are incorporating end to end encryption on their platform. Facebook’s is not incorporated yet but will be in the coming months. There are many more security apps out there with encryption and other security measures enabled as standard. Small bit or research will benefit your data security in the  long run.

With encryption software there is more of a focus on encryption of data rather than the device itself.

The Data Destruction Dilemma

To truly ensure your data is destroyed, hard drives are crushed into tiny pieces beyond repair. Formatting and purging the drive does not completely erase the data.

But what about the cost of purchasing self-encrypted drives? This is becoming a topical issue. Firstly self encrypting drives, do offer excellent security and equal performance to standard drives. They are also affordable.

If the data is stored and all the security and encryption enabled, still runs the risk of a data breach. Technology can do many things but human error will be an ever present issue. Prevention is better than cure. A hard drive destruction service will ensure data is destroyed with no issue of data retrieval.

Confidential shredding services in Galway or Limerick areas are available to for on site shredding. For more information on our shredding services,

Email us at : info@securityinshredding.com

 

 

You May Not Be Warned Of An Online Security Breach

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iCloud security wake-up call, data brach

Data is everywhere and how it is used should be monitored by your data controller and you. Secure document destruction in Ireland is one method of ensuring data security. Data breaches are an ever present issue when it comes to data protection.

Confidential paper shredding is one method our customers use when shredding documents. Another factor is data security and preventing data breaches.

How can they occur?

Data Protection, Paper Shredding, limeirck paper shredding

Physically any document not shredded has the potential of a data breach. This will depend on what data is on the document sensitive or not. Dumpster diving is a risk to your physical data. In the wrong hands sensitive data can cause representational damage to a business or organisation.

Digital data is now more widely used than paper data and protections this data requires a more skilled hand to ensure its protection. Encryption and encrypted devices must be used if storing sensitive data. Data security is strong with most devices today but the methods of obtaining this data get creative.

“Phising” are email scams where the malicious software will mimic a well known and reputable site asking for a user’s details. If the details are obtained, the hacker can use this data for their own intent. There are other methods involved to obtain a person’s data and depending on the site or software’s security measures will determine what hackers can do with this data.

How Will I Know If A Breach Occurs?

The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has a guide on the steps needed to take if or when a data breach occurs. The DPC guide suggests data controllers inform the individual of the data breach.

What type of data was leaked will determine a data controllers reason to inform an individual of a breach. Fraud, identity theft, public humiliation and or public safety must be informed to the individual if the data lost contains information putting them at risk.

Nonsensitive data if breached does not need to be informed to the DPC. Breaches may occur without your knowledge and it’s up to the data controller to decide whether or not to inform you.

If / When A Breach Occurs

Prevention is always better than cure regarding data breaches. Be aware of where you put your information online. A reputable site will have security measures in place to protect your data. Sites are vulnerable to breaches. It’s the data encryption that ensures that the data obtained cannot be used in a harmful way.

If you suspect your account has been breached then inform the site provider so they can confirm.

Data Security is vital for businesses and organisations to succeed. Inadequate security measures are what cause biggest security breaches. Time is of the essence when a breach occurs. Cancel your card or inform your bank about the breach and the site admins also to prevent further damage.

At Security in Shredding, we offer more than secure document shredding service. Data protection advice and minimising data breaches are very important to us also. For more information please contact one of our team

Email us: info@securityinshredding.com

DPC Breach Guide: https://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/Data-Breach-Handling/901.htm