Are there Different Paper Shredding Regulations around the World? | The Communication Blog

Monday, May 16, 2011

Are there Different Paper Shredding Regulations around the World?

By Adriana Noton


Fraud, identity theft, forgery, white collar crimes and information security breaches are a common occurrence in today's information world. Today, every business that has sensitive and classified documents should use the services of a document destruction company to safely and securely permanently destroy their documents. Because of the potential security breaches, governments in many countries have instituted paper shredding regulations that a business must follow. For instance, the US has the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA), The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Modernization Act. These types of paper shredding regulations are designed to protect consumers, employees of companies, and the companies and organizations themselves. They require that companies permanently destroy sensitive documents and implement policies that minimize the risk of sensitive and confidential data from falling into the hands of criminals. When organizations do not comply with the regulations, it can result in such penalties as class-action lawsuits and federal and state fines.

Although Governments and regulators around the world are implementing security policies regarding the security of sensitive documents, prevention measures should always be implemented by companies. But prevention is the best solution. The best way to meet government regulation is to use the services of a document destruction company. These companies specifically focus on meeting regulatory privacy and confidentiality requirements to ensure compliance. Compliance with these privacy policies is not just the law in most countries but it is a good business practice.

Papers shredders are classified based on their security level. The security level of a shredder increases by number. The higher the number the better the security. Document shredding companies meet all 6 security levels. Below are the 6 security levels that document shredding companies meet:

Security Level 1 - Shredders at this security level are designed for shredding non sensitive records.

Security Level 2 - The shredders at security level 2 are designed for shredding documents such as printouts or photocopies of important information.

Security Level 3 - Most home shredders fall under this security level. They can also be found in small business.

Security Level 4 - This security level is intended to shred such highly confidential documents as financial information such as credit card statements and bank statements.

Security Level 5 - This is a top secret security level that is defense departments all over the world must meet. A high security paper shredder is used.

Security Level 6- This is the highest level of paper shredders available. The CIA will use paper shredders that meet this security level.

Today, identity theft, fraud, forgery, white collar crimes and security information breaches are definitely on the rise which has made document security a top priority for every organization. It is not just a top priority, but it is also the law in most countries. When it comes to securing your documents, no matter what type of organization you manage, using a document shredding company will ensure your sensitive documents are permanently destroyed. You will have peace of mind knowing your documents were kept out of the hands of criminals.




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