When running a business, it’s inevitable that your business documents and papers start to accumulate, creating a huge mess to deal with. Considering how vital data privacy is to your business, the more these documents accumulate and clutter, the greater the risk of your business data being compromised. As more and more people start to work from home, the measures taken to prevent identity theft and data fraud have become vital for the survival of businesses. This is precisely why we, as ATI Secure Docs, think it is crucial that you make sure you shred the following 5 documents if you want to minimize your risk of compromised data:
1. Bank Statements/Transaction Statements
By simply tossing your bank statements and other private documents in the recycling, you’re leaving yourself open to identity theft and fraud. If these documents aren’t maintained and destroyed properly, fraudsters can use your company info to apply for credit cards, open utility accounts, or alter associated physical addresses under different names.
2. Outdated Financial Statements
Financial statements contain private data that can be detrimental to your business’ wellbeing if it falls into the wrong hands. These statements, along with void checks and online purchase orders containing your bank account or billing information, should be maintained and appropriately destroyed.
3. Employee Records
Maintaining client and employee records needs extreme caution as they usually contain sensitive information. In fact, these types of documents are generally the source of most identity fraud cases. Employee records, including resumes, pay stubs, and Ids, must be carefully managed.
4. Other Records
Any document that contains private information such as a name, address, social security number, credit card number and bank account balance should be destroyed to minimize identity theft and fraud. Simply throwing these documents away or recycling takes no preventive measure against fraud.
5. Junk Mail
We sometimes throw away our junk mail, not thinking of the negative consequences of doing so. Junk mail usually will have a barcode on it, containing a lot of your personal information. Credit card offers from other banks, membership mails, association mails can all contain sensitive information. These documents need to be destroyed as well.
At ATI Secure Docs, we understand and advocate the importance of data security and privacy. We make sure our clients are always well-informed about the threat they may face when maintaining documents and the preventative measures they can take to overcome it. For a secure and safe shredding experience, please make sure to call us today.