Fraud is one of the most common global crimes today, and it affects organizations of all sizes. Big brands are particularly vulnerable since the controversy can cause significant losses for the business. In recent years, Yahoo, Target, The Home Depot, among others, have all been victims of security breaches. The most common techniques used by hackers involve some form of the social engineering process. However, paper records remain one of the most important sources of personal information for fraudsters.
Today, four out of ten customers state that they will stop buying from the business if there has been a case of a data breach. This is because most people understand that once criminals have accessed their personal data, they have no control over what they can do with it. It is one of the reasons why any business needs a high security paper shredder.
Here are some other reasons why organizations are increasing their effort to secure personal data, especially on paper records.
1. Identity Theft
According to statistics, 40% of fraud cases have to do with identity theft. Cyber criminals can use data that is available on documents that are lying around the office. Even though the data may seem mundane, they can use it to correlate information needed to access financial accounts.
It is advisable to destroy personal documents, preferably using an industrial shredder machine. Remember, even employees can be victims of identity theft within their workplace. In some cases, it’s easier to access their data, especially when old documents are not disposed of securely.
2. Internal Fraud
Every business will have some of the following paper records:
- Financial reports
- Employee records
- Receipts and invoices
- Customer records
- Marketing Plans
Each of them contains sensitive data about the organization. Untrustworthy members of staff can then use these types of records to commit internal fraud. This ranges from IT scams to petty forgeries of sensitive documents for personal gain. Unfortunately, once the scheme is traced back to your employees or organization, it could ruin the company’s reputation.
It is, therefore, to consider getting a high security paper shredder to help you dispose of sensitive documents securely.
3. Information Loss to Competing Organizations
A competing business may use documents such as financial reports and marketing plans to sabotage your plans. They can gain an unfair advantage by accessing your records to anticipate your next move.
Records can reveal the nature of a new innovative product even before it hits the market. You can protect your intellectual property rights by always using a secure paper shredder. It should ideally have a micro-shredding feature that can cut an A4 paper into 2000 pieces.
Any Business can be a Target
Even though the rise in Fraud has been destructive for businesses, it has prompted organizations to pay attention to their records. This is because business leaders have come to acknowledge the devastating impact of an information breach.
Organizations ought to develop protocols for securely disposing of records containing customer, financial, and health information. An ideal system should address the efficiency and convenience of destroying sensitive documents. A high security paper shredder has multiple features and can complete the task faster with minimal delays. For more information on how to protect your data, contact Capital Shredder today.
