What is the European Commission’s New Data Protection Framework proposal?

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Security in Shredding

The European Commission announced a proposed reform to The European Union’s Data Protection Framework On the 25^th of January 2012. You can read the full press release here.

EU Data Protection

Within the announcement The Commission stated that the current framework – known as the 19995 EU Data Protection Directive is outdated. The main reasons for the framework to be outdated are due to rapid technology change and globalisation. These points are important to consider when deciding upon the best option to securely destroy your sensitive paper data through a confidential paper shredding service. Whether the service will be an onsite paper shredding service or an on-demand offsite paper shredding service it is important to ensure that your paper shredding company is a Data processor. You can see the list of registered Irish data processing firms here.

The new Data Protection framework will be a regulation which means all member states will have to abide by the rules. The rules will go into effect two years after they have been adopted by the member countries which is expected to be in 2018-2019.

Security in Shredding Team.

Paper Shredding Dublin

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Security in Shredding

This brief blog article will focus upon the topic of Paper Shredding Dublin and will share some insight into unacceptable high risk practices with some links to helpful guidance websites to help with the decision making when establishing a document shredding protocol and digital data destruction protocol within your Organisation and households in Ireland.

Data Protection and the ethical procedures for the disposal of end of life data is essential for all in today’s ever evolving data world. Hard-Drives, CD’s, Data Cartridges and Paper files are the main methods for experiencing a damaging and painful data breach.

Protecting your Physical Data and in turn your Personal Identity is vital for all today and a data destruction Dublin service is the most suitable and compliant method for Organisations operating in Ireland and us the Irish citizens to assert the protection of our information.

High risk practices;

Following the guidance of other Organisations both in the Private Sector and Public Sector;

With the advances in data reconstruction technology, increasing levels of data crime, extreme forces for lower costs in addition to contradicting and mind boggling information, simply looking at an alternative Organisation (Private &/or Public) to mimic their procedures and practices is not an appropriate method to establish your own data procedures and practices for managing sensitive paper documents. As we in Ireland are a member of The European Union we are subject to European Legislation in addition to Irish Data Protection Legislation. This point also raises the level of risk of data protection when looking at other Organisations as there have been many different views upon the legislation and the application of it in our Country.

During the Thanks Giving period in The US an extremely serious Data Breach occurred where paper documents containing personal information were found dumped in a recycling centre. These documents were traced back to a hospital which may now be in line to face serious fines and penalties. The affected parties were contacting and apologies were given on behalf of the hospital.

In November of 2015 in our own home Country of Ireland we have seen a data breach occur in one of our Hospitals which in turn personal patient records were found in a recycling bin on the street outside the Hospital.

I want to highlight these two examples as it is important to note that the protection of personal data is a global issue and it is not to be underestimated. These examples also highlight that Companies in the Dublin Region that wish to establish a Dublin Paper Shredding Service and look for guidance from Organisations either in the Private or Public Sectors may lead to data breaches which in turn may lead to negligence penalty enforcement’s. Independent research from reputable information sources that has the protection of personal sensitive data as their number one concern is the most appropriate method for establishing your data protection procedures.

2. Allowing you Waste Management firm to manage your end of life personal sensitive data;

This point is of serious concern for all Organisations and citizens of Ireland to ensure the protection of their personal sensitive paper data. This article is not to negatively market waste operating firms as many of them do an amazing and admirable job at protecting our environment, producing waste fuel for export to incinerators, collecting household waste, running recycling centers, separating and segregating waste materials and selling waste commodities to the recycling industry for maximum revenues not to mention the hundreds of people that are employed through waste operators, they truly are appreciated. When it comes to personal sensitive data and the appropriate disposal of that data there are specialist firms within the market that are subject to additional standards, certifications and best practices which may not be the case for many waste operators who do not have confidential shredding as their primary business case. There is also an industry representative body for these professional specialist firms to ensure industry best practices. If you are specialist data destruction firm (Paper Shredding Firm) you are a Data Processor and recognised as a data processor under legislation. When you are a data processor you are subject to additional legislation from both Ireland and Europe and you are accountable for breaches of the legislation. If you are a waste operator managing waste services you may not be recognised as a data processor but as a materials processor. With this point, if a data breach occurs the Data Processor liability under data protection legislation may not be valid and there may not be accountability in the case of your data breach.

3. Empowering staff with the responsibility to destroy your end of life data;

When deciding whether or not to give staff the responsibility of destroying their end of life data or hiring in temporary or work experience staff it is important to take into account the following factors

Have you provided adequate training for staff
Have you included their responsibilities in their employment contracts
Have you received an audit trail for your material
Do you have proof of destruction
Do you have proof of recycling
Have you destroyed the data to the appropriate shred size
Have you completed a cost benefit analysis on the activity
Are staff being taken away from other activities
Have you singed confidentiality agreements
Have you conducted background checks upon staff

The risks when destroying data outweigh the benefits of completing the process in-house. When dealing with risk it is impossible to eliminate the risk however it is possible to minimise the risk levels and with this in mind it is important to look for a professional specialist shredding firms to manage your destruction requirements and ensure compliance to save you from possible data breaches.

If you require any further information to better help equip yourself from experiencing a damaging data breach please do not hesitate to contact the Security in Shredding Team for friendly helpful guidance with no obligations. You may also want to visit the following sites;

Keeping you Identity Safe – Paper Shredding Limerick

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Security in Shredding

No matter what your career, your financial standing, association involvements and tolerance for privacy it can be detrimental for you to have your identity stolen. When looking at data privacy and data protection there are lists of methods to ensure your safety for both physical data (paper records) and digital data (Online privacy). Examples of these would be data protection training, secure paper shredding, document shredding, hard-drive destruction, hiring EN 15713 certified vendors, purchasing security software and ensuring effective firewalls are in place to name a few.

We know today that the majority of data breaches and identity theft occurs online as it is easier and more efficient for criminals to source personal information without being detected and leaving a trace. This is a new and ever evolving effort for security providers and legislators to battle with in an attempt to succeed against the online data theft crimes.

However, with that in mind it is time to think about the high levels of data theft crimes that we have experienced for years and continue to experience today through bad guys impersonating their victims in return for financial gain. These crimes have been committed as long as confidential identity documents have existed. Precise and measured management is required on order to truly battle against identity theft from paper documents with the key stone being a paper shredding Limerick system, it is not only limited to The Limerick area, firms from right across the Country need to construct/purchase and implement a confidential paper shredding system to manage waste paper documents.

The hard truth is that all of our identities are linked to paper that in turn require a confidential paper shredding service. Simply having copies of the confidential documents can be all that is needed in order to pose as them. Once you can pose as someone you can claim benefits, raise loans and apply for credit cards. One single document could be worth hundreds of thousands of Euro to the right person with criminal intentions. A Limerick paper shredding service through professional vendors that are registered with the required regulatory body is an essential activity for both business and individuals in today’s economy.

The slowdown in the economy, seen the introduction of financing options from product providers such as car dealerships. This development has increased the risk of a identify theft occurring as it requires specific training for any employee to be able to identify a fraudulent request for financing.

Not all identity theft through paper documents is for money, though. A famous example is actor Wallace Ford, who acquired documents including a passport in the name of his dead friend and lived a fake life for thirty years until his death in 1966.

To battle and protect yourselves from data breaches and receiving fines and penalties hire a paper shredding Limerick vendor who has the expertise and certification that will ensure that you are protected from such breaches occurring.

Never enter waste paper into recycling bins and never allow waste vendors to “manage” your waste paper data in order to maintain confidentiality of your data and protect you and your Company’s image.

Protecting Environment Through Paper Shredding

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Security in Shredding

In our lives, we use paper extensively in one way or another to record data. This would mean that an increased number of trees would be cut for sufficing our needs which can prove damaging for our environment. For protecting the environment, government has framed laws for destruction of paper which have to be honored by the corporate houses and companies utilizing paper for official work. For complying with these laws, companies need to shred paper and documents they use, recycle and reuse them. Sticking to such an approach would reduce the need to cut trees for paper and thus protect our environment.

Documents and papers used in companies lose their relevance with time and they are no longer required and one option for getting rid of them is to insert them into general recycling streams. But this is not an effective solution and creates data breach hazards as more and more paper ends up in untrained and unaccountable hands. The other disadvantage of such an arrangement is that paper and documents used in a company contains highly sensitive information about the clients, customers and the company itself. If manipulative individuals gain access to them from a recycling stream, this can result in company’s secrets getting leaked to its competitors putting its survival at stake. Similarly the confidential customer information may get compromised resulting in identity theft and other damaging outcomes for the customers. To avoid such scenarios, documents need to be destructed in a safe and secure manner. A company can achieve this by hiring services of a Paper shredding Ireland Service which will not only destruct documents securely, but will also recycle them. So the company can use them again in the form of sanitary rolls and cardboard packaging.

A paper shredding service has security screened and trained men, equipment and transport facilities required for the secure destruction of paper. Such a service provides both on site as well as off site destruction facilities. For destroying papers on site, the service would bring its men and equipment to the company’s premises and destroying them there. Its personnel would maintain confidentiality and security of data and information contained in papers strictly as deeds of confidentiality are signed in order to carry out their operations. They have got the latest equipment which can shred vast amount of documents fast, efficiently and beyond reconstruction. Off site data destruction involves moving the documents away from the premises to some other place and destroying them there and recycling it. The paper shredding service would also provide an auditing facility, so the company can remain assured about confidentiality being implemented during the destruction process. If you as a company owner or representative want your data to be destructed safely, properly and efficiently for protecting your important information contained in the documents, you should hire a reputed and reliable document destruction service. By getting your paper destructed and recycled from the service you will not only be able to save your costs, but can also protect your company’s reputation as your sensitive data would not be falling into wrong hands.

Employ A Shredding Service For Data Destruction

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Security in Shredding

The technological advancements have benefited people all over the world. Now they have easy access to a wide variety of information present in their computers as well as documents that are no longer needed. Businesses have also gained from such advancements as they can store and process valuable data and information from their clients and customers on their systems for providing them useful services and create value and money out of them. But such gains come at a cost. As businesses and people use data in electronic and paper form, the data loses relevance with time due to people changing their houses, adding more members to their family, changing their mobile phone, receiving a driving license, qualifications, etc.

As this data is no longer required, it needs to be disposed of correctly and appropriately. As a result of not destroying the data appropriately the data contained within a hardware or paper documents can end up in a landfill which damages the environment and your company’s image. Moreover sensitive data lying in landfills may fall into the hands of people with ill intent who can compromise security of the individuals featuring in the data. Should this happen, this can damage the reputation and business of the concerned service provider that has used this data for providing its services. So the solution lies in the destruction of the data in a proper, secure and environmentally friendly way.

If your business wants to destruct sensitive client and customer data in a safe and reliable manner, it should seek help from a reputable on site mobile Paper Shredding Ireland Service. Such a company would employ a proper methodology and latest equipment’s for collecting, transporting and destructing the data contained in materials and then recycles these materials in line with the European Waste Hierarchy. It will perform this in a confidential manner, so there is no unauthorized access or manipulation of data. By using the modern machines, the service would efficiently destroy and recycle paper and hardware containing data and information. Such a service is known to offer WEEE, cardboard and plastic recycling to compliment the secure data destruction and ensure compliance with Data Protection Legislation.

For destroying the data contained in paper and other forms that your business no longer needs, you can hire a reliable document destruction service. By properly, efficiently and confidentially destructing your data and recycling it, the service will not only protect the environment but would also protect your business’s reputation by ensuring your customers’ sensitive data does not fall into the wrong hands.

Why We Should Outsource Paper Shredding Services

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Security in Shredding

Getting your confidential papers shredded by a professional shredding company is always a good way to protect the company’s confidential & sensitive information from being leaked out. It not only reduces the chances of identity theft & hijacking but also has a great environmental impact. The need for confidential documents shredding has become today’s indispensable requirement so as to keep their important confidential documents safe and secure. Deploying a paper shredding machine at office is effective if the documents are not of high confidentiality but when it comes to secured & legal written documents then there you need the help of professional document shredding service provider company. There are many paper shredding companies but the most reliable one is security in shredding. The company provides paper shredding services in Ireland and the cork area as well. The cork security shredding services are both onsite & offsite paper shredding services.

Let’s have a look as to why we should outsource a paper shredding service providing company:

Security: With professional shredders & security screened staff, paper shredding company in Ireland, ensures secured destruction of the documents onsite as well as offsite. In case of offsite document shredding services, the ‘Same Day Shred’ policy provides the clients with satisfaction that their confidential documents are destroyed the same day as collection. Also, the Certificates of Destruction and Recycling provided by the shredding company to the client ensures full guarantee and traceability of their material in order to satisfy and audit situation.

Cost Effective: Hiring a professional document shredding company is much more cost effective than deploying a shredding setup in house at the office. As with a professional shredding expert, the client does not have to get involved in the shredding process and this saves his time which can be utilized in other productive activities in the cork area.

Time Saving: Cutting and ripping documents manually consumes a lot of time and does not assure effective and secure destruction. It can be easily reconstructed also. Whereas, Shredding documents is a quick and easy way to dispose off papers which are no longer required.

So, it is always advisable to have a professional shredding service provider.

Benefits of Document Shredding Specialists in Limerick

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Security in Shredding

Get Benefits of Choosing Right Document Shredding Specialists

To securely discard confidential documents, files and data every business, irrespective of its size, needs to have document shredding specialists who provide confidential document shredding services with great professionalism & efficiency. These documents and files usually contain sensitive information that you don’t want others to see or don’t want to be disclosed. Therefore, it is mandatory to dispose of such confidential documents on a regular basis and this is where shredding companies come in as being essential for an organisation to maintain compliance with legislation. A professional document shredding company reduces the chances of losing data elsewhere, and ensures legal obligations are met.

There are two types of document shredding services that are provided by the shredding specialists in limerick.

On-Site Document Shredding Limerick: Here in this service, the shredding company sends their mobile truck to the client’s location and shreds all the confidential documents in front of the client, without seeing or touching the confidential documents as the shredding process is fully automated. Here, the best thing is, post the shredding services, the shredding company provides its client with full traceability of their confidential paper waste in the form of Certificates of Destruction and Certificates of Recycling. This ultimately provides peace of mind to the client that their documents have been disposed off securely and destroyed beyond reconstruction.

Offsite Document Shredding Limerick: In the offsite document shredding service, the shredding company sends specially trained shredding staff to the client’s location to securely pick up the client’s confidential documents. These are sealed in a bag and opened at the time of the confidential shredding process at the secure facility of the shredding company. The main shredding companies implement ‘same day shred’ policy for all offsite collections which in turn provides the clients with peace of minds that their confidential documents will be destructed the same day as collection. If this point is not advertised it is essential for the client to enquire further as the material may enter storage if the company is a waste processor.

Now let’s see why do companies need shredding services and what are the benefits of hiring a professional shredding service provider company.

Saves time: In-house shredding of documents manually consumes a lot of time and does not assure effective and secure destruction. Whereas, professional Shredding through a service provider is a quick and easy way to dispose of sensitive papers which are no longer required.

Even the law says you should shred: Confidential documents like medical records, personal details, bank statements, profit & loss statements all have to be disposed of correctly as per the Data Protection Acts. These documents and statements should be shredded before it goes in to the wrong hands.

Reduces risk of identity theft: Confidential paper shredding helps in minimizing the risk of falling prey to identity theft as it carefully shreds and destroys all the confidential information efficiently & properly through cross cutting technology.

Your data will remain confidential: Businesses involve a lot of documentation for everything from meeting notes to staff details, future business developments to sales figures. Shredding documents give companies the peace of mind that their business future plans are not going to go into the wrong hands through their waste paper streams.

Save storage space: Every company has stacks of papers and documents which are many years old and no longer needed but they’re not sure how to properly dispose off them. Paper can take up lots of space in an office, sitting on desks or in filing cabinets, so by shredding these, space can be made and utilized for other useful things.

Reduces risk of recovery: Since the documents are shredded into so tiny particles, that data recovery becomes a next to impossible task which actually reduces the risk of recovery.

So always go for a professional document shredding company as it is cost effective and more efficient than most of us in doing their task.

Get more detail about document shredding Limerick click here
Document Shredding Limerick

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Paper Shredding In Ireland

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Security in Shredding

In today’s business environment, the majority of organizations are not paper free and unfortunately, organizations don’t even realize this. Even though digital systems store data in digital format there are still a great deal of information being printed whether it is for a meeting or physical writing/reading the data is being generated in paper format. Storing confidential information this way may result in to careless handling or time consuming paper shredding which is why large – medium – small companies generally prefer professionals to do the job. Depending upon your requirements for paper shredding in Ireland, you could plan a scheduled regular or monthly paper shredding service. This will certainly provide you with a continuous document of regular conformity, making the job straightforward as well as fast ensuring compliance to legislation.

Let’s check out the top 5 attribute/accreditations to consider for a paper shredding company in Ireland:

Information Security: A reliable paper shredding company provides a secure chain of custody, from the time documents are collected, through the shredding process, and ends with a Certificate of Destruction provided after every service performed. These companies are subjected to regulation to take care of any data that contains personally identifiable information. This information must be securely destroyed for the reputation of any organization.
Agreement – Nowadays, secure paper shredding is not just a need but a legal requirement, in many countries. This has been declared as a legal responsibility to protect personally identifiable information otherwise penalties and fines are implemented upon businesses that don’t.
Saves money and time – Availing of professional paper shredding in Ireland is great solution and is more effective than buying a shredding machine or paying for maintenance after every time lap. Also, it spares time for employees to perform their appropriate tasks other than paper shredding as it holds sever risk to the Organization.
Convenience – Shredding documents is convenient now, with professionally certified shredding companies. They provide locked consoles and place them in easily accessible locations around your premise so that documents that need to be destroyed are easy to gather at one place and are “Kept Secure” in line with Data Protection Legislation.
More than shredding paper docs – Shredding services are not paper destruction only. The digital form of documentation also needs to be securely destroyed. Ask your professional paper shredding company in Ireland if they can provide a way of destroying digital data.

Get the experienced service providers to ensure complete destruction to confidential information rather relying on employee for manual paper shredding.

Professional Document Destruction Services in Ireland

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Security in Shredding

When you set up a business, it includes a lot of paper work that often contains confidential information about the company, its employees, vendors, clients or customers which is essential not to be leaked out to any person. This calls for confidential shredding and document destruction services. These services are provided by professional document destruction and confidential shredding experts & companies as it requires experience, training & knowledge to operate and run paper shredding machines.

Security in Shredding is one such company in Ireland that believes in maintaining the high standard of confidentiality & efficiency for their customers. The highly efficient, security screened and trained staff of Security in Shredding knows how to process data and destroying information so as to avoid any fines, penalties and legal actions for voiding compliance with federal, industry, and state regulations.

Now let’s have a look on why companies should hire professional confidential shredding & document destruction service providing companies:

Proper delegation of duties & responsibilities are given to destruct all confidential records and documents of clients.

High-quality shredding systems that eradicates the risk of paper reconstruction.

Highly trained and security screened staff and professionals who all are well versed with the operation of shredding systems.

Inexpensive and cost effective service.

Saves you and your employee’s time consumed in paper shredding.

A person can be held accountable in case of a confidential data breach.

Highly efficient shredding systems to destruct all types of papers, hard drives, floppies, CDs.

Therefore, it is mandatory for all the businesses, irrespective of their sizes, to hire professional confidential shredding companies so as to protect their confidential information and diminish the risk of identity theft.

Very Interesting Article: Increase seen in law suits for failing to protect personal data

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Security in Shredding

There has been in increase in the number of civil law actions taken against organisations and even Government departments for failing to protect people’s personal information, a conference has heard.

Such an action against one Government department for allegedly breaching a person’s data protection rights settled ahead of a listed court hearing this week.

The action, understood to have been against the Department of Social Protection, is one of an increasing number of such cases being taken against companies or public bodies that allegedly fail in their duty of care to protect people’s personal information.

The issue was raised at a Public Affairs Ireland (PAI) data protection conference in Dublin on Wednesday.

Several such cases under the Data Protection Acts have been listed for hearing in the past year or so, but they have generally been settled on the steps of the court.

They included the case of a woman who sued a pharmacist for allowing her husband view CCTV footage which showed her buying a pregnancy test. Another such case involved a GP who handed over excessive personal information about a patient to an insurance company.

The actions are taken under section 7 of the Data Protection Acts, which provide that a data controller owes a duty of care to individuals in respect of the personal information it collects or processes.

Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon told the PAI conference there had really been “no activity” in relation to such civil lawsuits until “very recently” but that there were now “quite a number of cases” where people were taking actions under section 7 of the Acts.

The commissioner cannot impose direct fines on organisations that fail to respect data protection rights. This will change under proposals in a new European data protection regulation currently being negotiated.

Ms Dixon also noted a recent case involving a GP who had handed over excessive personal data about a patient to an insurance company. Her office had been called as a witness. The case was settled after a day in court.

“In that particular case, the witness from the [Data Protection Commissioner] said that it really had huge impact on them to hear the data subject in that case set out for the court the damage that was suffered as a result of that unfair disclosure of their data – the excessive data disclosure – to the insurance company.”

The person had gone on to suffer enormous health problems as a result of the data breach.

Ms Dixon said she was aware of another case listed that had directly involved a government department, but it had been settled out of court.

While she did not identify the government department concerned, the commissioner said she imagined the person in question had been paid damages.

Rob Corbet, a partner and Head of Technology and Innovation at Arthur Cox, also confirmed in his speech to the event that there had been an increase in the number of people suing for breaches of their data protection rights.

The commissioner reminded those in the public sector of their responsibilities in relation to handling personal data, noting her office had successfully prosecuted private investigators last year for offences involving the ‘blagging’ of people’s personal details from a government department.

Ms Dixon said that over 100 data breaches involving public sector bodies were reported to her office every year.

“Fortunately, in most instances in recent years these have concerned breaches that are really non-systemic and haven’t affected a great volume of data subjects.”

Minister for Data Protection Dara Murphy, who also addressed the event, spoke about the Government’s key priorities for the year.

He said he had established an inter-departmental committee on data issues, bringing together the key individuals dealing with data protection in each government department.

Mr Murphy said the committee would assist in the delivery of “more effective public policy through the improved use of data”.

He said exciting advances in technology created huge potential for society and for the economy.

Departments and State agencies needed to show leadership and commitment to data protection rules as they evolved over the next year, during which a conclusion to negotiations on the new European General Data Protection Regulation is expected, he said.

The minister said the committee’s engagement would be formalised in the coming weeks with the establishment of a “data issues forum”, with input from business, civil society and other key stakeholders.

Dr Eoin O’Dell, Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin, addressed the conference on the challenges posed for privacy by new technologies and the Internet of Things.

He said that increasingly, the kind of personal and public data becoming available, as well as the sharing of public sector information and datasets online, would have an impact on decision-making processes.

“All of this is heading towards a nice, bright Utopian future. But, I think that this rhetoric needs to be accompanied by an attention to privacy, both on our own part in the creation of the data, and in our professional lives in the use of the data.”

Reference: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/increase-seen-in-law-suits-for-failing-to-protect-personal-data-1.2154537

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