Why a Home Office is Dangerous to Your Data

More and more people are working from home, whether for their own businesses or telecommuting as part of a flexible work schedule offered by their employers. According to Global Workplace Analytics, more than 4.3 million employees work from home at least half the time, a 140% increase since 2005.

While working from home can lead to higher employee satisfaction, better work-life balance, and even improved productivity, it also creates a higher risk of exposing confidential and sensitive information.

If you are a telecommuting employee or an employer that allows staff members to work from home, make sure you keep your data secure by using proper storage, safeguarding, and disposal methods for all work-related documents.

Businesses are required by law to keep customer information secure, including disposing of it properly by shredding or otherwise destroying documents so they can’t be read or reconstructed. In most states, that regulation extends to individuals as well.

Connecticut law, for example, requires any individual in possession of personal information related to another person to “safeguard the data, computer files and documents containing the information from misuse by third parties, and destroy, erase or make unreadable such data, computer files and documents prior to disposal.”

One of the most common ways individuals working in home offices can expose their employers to information theft is by not having confidential documents professionally shredded.

While the office may have ongoing shredding services, employees working at home have to either shred documents by using a low-end home shredder, going to a local shredding event, dropping documents off at a shredding company for shredding, or taking the documents back into the office to be professionally shredded in accordance with the shredding schedule in place.

While all those options are better than throwing away or recycling documents intact, none are as convenient, cost-effective, and secure as having a professional shredding company pick up the documents right from your home and destroy them professionally using state-of-the-art shredding trucks.

The solution? PROSHRED Connecticut’s ongoing shredding service. If you work for a business that uses PROSHRED for ongoing shredding services, we can integrate home office shredding services to ensure confidential information is being handled securely outside the office.

By using PROSHRED to professionally shred documents handled by employees working from home, your business can be sure that all your confidential documents are destroyed in a convenient, secure, and environmentally friendly way, no matter where they are.