The Cost of Information Security

According to a data breach study sponsored by IBM, every confidential record that is lost or stolen costs a company around $150. This expense includes the loss of business, the loss of the company’s reputation, and the cost of investigating and repairing the damage. For a company with hundreds or thousands of financial and customer records, this can add up to millions of dollars in the cost of information security. It is not enough to spend your information security budget on fortifying your systems against cyber attacks. There is another point of vulnerability that can compromise business information security, which is the mishandling of data files by employees.

When Data Breaches Occur

A data breach can occur when old records are not destroyed properly. When sensitive documents are just discarded in the trash, information thieves can rummage through the bins and take whatever they want. Therefore, all sensitive documents that are no longer needed must be shredded. ProShred Tampa offers convenient and economical solutions in data destruction in the Tampa Bay area. ProShred can shred all of your sensitive documents on site so that this information does not get compromised.

Shredding For Information Security

Adopting a regular schedule of data destruction is easy and economical. When you use ProShred’s scheduled shredding service, you will receive secured containers where you can discard sensitive documents that are no longer needed. On the scheduled date, ProShred will come out and securely shred your documents on site. The frequency will be tailored to your business needs. Using a professional shredding service maximizes your information security budget. Compared to what it would cost you if your company information was stolen, using ProShred as a way of protecting your information is a smart investment.

Hard Drive Destruction Services

Data destruction is not limited to paper documents. If you have sensitive computer files on a machine that you plan to recycle, merely deleting the files will not erase the data from the hard drive. The hard disk must be destroyed, and ProShred can do that for you. ProShred can pick up the equipment to be destroyed and give you a certificate of destruction. If you prefer to witness the destruction of your hard drives, Proshred’s mobile service can destroy them on site.

Other Information Security Considerations

A clean desk policy is also crucial to business information security. Confidential files left on the desk are easy targets for information thieves. Anyone walking by can potentially steal that information and create a breach. On the other hand, if your company requires every employee to lock up all sensitive materials whenever he steps away from his desk, it will greatly reduce the risk of a data breach. If there are documents that are no longer used, they should be shredded.

By properly shredding documents, destroying the hard disk and media before recycling equipment, and enforcing a clean desk policy, you can reduce your cost of information security. It is a cost-effective way to increase data security, and you will have peace of mind that your information will not fall into the wrong hands.