Ben points out that the sheer volume of paper and digital media that accumulates over time requires effective information destruction policies and practices. Every company has information that needs to be destroyed, though regulations may require that certain data be archived for a few years or permanently.

The discussion talks about why hoarding data records can be a liability, gives a list of information that can be shredded when no longer needed, and talks about the regulatory environment regarding data retention and destruction. Just tossing things into the garbage is not the answer, as trashing of records without appropriate destruction can be dangerous. The article suggests that destruction of data be done on a formal (documented) and regular basis.

While the discussion of physical data continued in Part 1, Part 2 of the series looked at electronic information. The destruction of data here includes the importance of sanitizing unwanted hardware (computers, backup tapes, etc) so that no information can be recovered. Computrace Data Delete capabilities can help you do this as part of your asset life cycle. If for some reason it’s not possible to delete the data (maybe it’s from an extremely old computer), the hardware should be destroyed. Various acceptable and unacceptable methods of sanitation and destruction are discussed.

The whole series is a great read and may help you establish or refine your own data policies.

Image: ppdigital @morguefile

The WHH Ranch Company has been using shredded paper from a Texas-based bank for 20 years. Some of that paper came in the form of shredded checks.

When Michelle McBride ordered some food from WHH Ranch, she found it packed in shredded checks. The shredded paper was in wider strips (it was not cross-shredded) that could be easily pieced together. In fact, that’s what Michelle McBride did – she was able to easily re-assemble some checks and plainly read off account numbers and routing information for hospitals, medicare, schools, businesses and personal accounts.

After learning of the problem, WHH Ranch says they’ll ensure it doesn’t happen again.

So, two things to learn from this:

• If you are shredding sensitive information, use a good cross-shredder or confetti shredder. Particularly if you’re a business.
• If you are using shredded paper as packaging material, ensure it’s finely shredded material that contains only non-sensitive papers.

After the jump is a video of the CNN report about this incident (the video auto-plays):

Hat tip to consumerist, via ktka