With the rise of the internet there has been a lot of importance placed upon our digital information. The number of businesses doing their work solely through digital channels is increasing constantly. Because of this, cybercrime has increased at equal rates. People have had their money, identities, and bank information all stolen via cybercrime, and it can be hard to find the culprit.
The Treachery of Cybercrimes
Crimes like these are committed by people who are very computer savvy. They are able to find time traces of your information left on the internet or hard drive and gain access through that. Like a rat finding a hole in your foundation, cybercrimes can be committed with the smallest of openings.
There are many ways to protect against cybercrime, one way is to take care to not post personal information on the world wide web. Another would be to delete sensitive documents from your computer but sometimes even doing that isn’t enough. It can take a long time to even realize there has been a security breach, as 24% of victims discovered they had been hacked on accident.
When a file is created and deleted on a computer, there are breadcrumbs of proof of their existence left in the computer’s logging information. If you recall the rat metaphor, then you should know these breadcrumbs are only more opportunities for cyber crimes.
The only way to completely delete sensitive information from being accessed is the total destruction of the physical computer.
Using High-Capacity Paper Shredders
Alternatively, you could keep your most sensitive information off of the computer and in physical files. Then, you can destroy these paper files with a high capacity paper shredder. A high capacity paper shredder is able to obliterate objects beyond repair, destroying all sensitive information on your documents.
For the average person, being smart about what information you keep on your computer and deleting anything particularly sensitive may be enough to ward off cyber criminals. But there are many people with many reasons for keeping sensitive data on their computers. People who have jobs explicitly dealing with sensitive data have to be extra aware.
Anyone in a situation like this needs extra layers of protection that a high capacity paper shredder can use. The United States government and FBI use such machines to protect their most sensitive information.
If you’re concerned about your digital information being stolen, consider converting it to physical documents and investing in a high-capacity paper shredder.