Rates of identity theft are on the rise and it’s becoming more and more critical for businesses and individuals to take steps to protect themselves. For a business in New York City, just one data breach that contains personal information can cost thousands of dollars in lost business, destroy their reputation, and put your customers at risk.

What is Identity Theft?

There are several varieties of identity theft, dependent upon what information was compromised. Someone could use stolen personal information to open fraudulent loans or credit cards, place expensive purchases, assume your identity, or even withdraw your money from your own checking or savings accounts.

Any information that can be traced back to and used to identify or contact an individual is what identity thieves are looking for—they'll use it to purchase anything from Giants tickets to a new car.

There are laws in place that require businesses to protect employees from identity theft by identifying and protecting Personally Identifiable Information, or PII. Here are some of the items included under PII:

• Full name (if it’s not a common name i.e. John Smith)
• Date of birth
• Home address 
• Email address
• Telephone number 
• Credit card numbers
• Driver’s license number 
• Handwriting 
• Your online information (login name, screen name, nickname, or handle) 

A leak involving just few pieces of information gives thieves an opportunity to take advantage of your customers or your business. There’s several ways that PII can be compromised—one of the most common is when companies put documents that contain personal information directly in the trash. That information is vulnerable.  

Just one data breach can cost a company millions. For this reason we recommend creating a secure document management and shredding plan. By taking these steps to ensure your documents are destroyed properly you will eliminate the risk of PII getting into the wrong hands. 

New York Mobile Document Shredding

Bronx Document Shredding can connect you to mobile shredding services anywhere in the Bronx. Mobile shredding gives you flexibility and relieves the burden of moving heavy boxes of documents on your own. 

Here are some of the ways that mobile shredding can help your company: 

• You can watch them shred your documents onsite. There is no physical contact between the shredding contractor and your documents at any time. By watching the process you can verify that the shredding was done correctly. If you are dealing with items that can be exchanged for cash, they need to be destroyed while you watch. Any time you have coupons, unused checks, certificates, and other items, you should ensure they are completely destroyed so they can never be used again.

• You can have documents shredded regularly. Shredding documents once or twice a year is better than not shredding at all—but if you are concerned with identity theft, you might want shred your documents monthly or quarterly to prevent legal liability and data breaches. A mobile shredding service makes it easy to schedule shredding regularly and prevent the buildup of unsecured information in your home or office.