SELECTSHRED | HOW IS YOUR DATA SECURITY ACCOUNTABILITY RATING? – PORT SAINT LUCIE SHREDDING FORT PIERCE SHREDDING STUART SHREDDING PALM CITY SHREDDING HOBE SOUND SHREDDING PALM BEACH SHREDDING
The March 26, 2014 article from Storage and Destruction Business (SDB) highlighted a recent settlement awarded by a Florida Court in a class-action data breach lawsuit. This information is timely as more regulations are put into place to ensure that customer privacy is not compromised and that businesses are held accountable for safeguarding the confidential information in their custody. As the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) CEO Bob Johnson said in the article, “It means the cost of a data breach will be so high that organizations will have to find a way to avoid them. Ultimately, it means better policies, better employee training, better contracts and greater scrutiny on third-party contracts and indemnification.” http://www.sdbmagazine.com/data-breach-settlement.aspx.
Accountability is paramount in protecting your company in case of an alleged data breach. Everything will rest on what you have in place to prove that you have done everything in your power to avoid data breaches, protect customer privacy, and safeguard the confidential information in your custody. Otherwise, you might face daunting legal issues, fines, destroyed reputation, and even settlement costs. Of course, employee education is the key to having effective data security in place. A NAID AAA Certified company can provide assistance in reviewing and preparing written document destruction policies and procedures. It will assist in staff training for your data security and destruction program.
Compliance training is the law, is good business practice, and is important for employees to understand the process. A process that involves understanding that proper data protection goes beyond shredding paper and also involves protecting data on computer hard drives, copier hard drives, and other storage media. This process also means that each business is responsible for knowing and understanding the qualifications of the document destruction company that it hires. Businesses are also held accountable for making sure that their own employees receive adequate training about proper data security and destruction practices.
Businesses are required and obligated by federal laws and regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) to safeguard, destroy and securely dispose of confidential information to reduce the risk of consumer fraud and identity theft. Customers, clients, and patients must have their information protected from identity theft and their privacy must also be protected. Collecting customer, client, and patient data brings with it the responsibility to protect that data from its collection and retention until it is no longer needed.
Using a third-party document destruction/shredding partner, such as a NAID AAA Certified company, will help to ensure that you are compliant with federal regulations. A NAID AAA Certified company performs the due diligence to make sure that when you use its service, the security personnel handling your confidential information have undergone rigorous background screening and training. As a professional secure data destruction service provider, a NAID AAA Certified company plays an important role in your Red Flags Rule compliance by assisting you in identifying potential breaches and breach indicators. So stay ahead and have a AAA rating.
Richard Kinkead & Gloria Kinkead
SelectShred, Inc.
T: (772) 463-3166
