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It’s true that businesses are always under threat of external malicious attacks, but a recent study has found that they aren’t the number one cause of data breaches. Employee error, either through negligence or just plain ignorance, is usually the reason why a company fails compliancy. Before your business gets busted, you should ensure your employees know the ins and outs of document security. More importantly, you should know when to keep them out of your security process.

There are plenty of ways your employees can keep your business in compliance with information management laws, and it lies in education. Education is essential to your staff’s understanding and adherence of security policies, so you need to provide them with adequate knowledge and tools in order to be aware. You can do this by ensuring all employees (not just new hires) receive training on how to recognize confidential material. Your training should explain the legal reasons why your company needs to keep certain information secure and describe the legal ramifications if any private information should circulate.

Training should also include digital protocol, as more companies do business online. Employees should know how to properly use your company’s unique hardware and programs, following appropriate locking procedures. If your company follows BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), you need to establish clear and comprehensible policies about how they should use and lock their mobile devices. These devices pose the greatest risk, since they can access company information remotely, especially if they are left in a public place without appropriate passwords. Employees should also receive a basic overview of how to spot phishing scams that can present in their inbox, and, if clicked, put your entire system at risk.

As an employer, you also need to understand how you should tier your staff. Unrestricted access to all of your company’s information isn’t necessary for every level of employee. Only allow each employee access to the specific data that they need in order to complete their task. This guarantees an individual won’t stumble upon classified information and accidentally (or purposefully) circulate it. Restricting access to physical and digital files to only those who have been specially vetted and trained to handle them will make sure confidential material stays secure.

Eliminating the need for in-house shredding is another way employers can limit employee error. By giving this task to an outside document destruction service, it removes the temptation to maliciously leak corporate information. In place of an unqualified employee, our team of representatives will ensure your confidential material is completely disposed of according to all secure shredding procedures. Our staff is made up of bonded, fully trained personnel, and our fleet of mobile shredding trucks are up to international information disposal standards. We’ll even provide you with secure containers to keep your digital and physical documents safe until your scheduled shredding time. Because our trucks our mobile, our team will meet you at your door. After shredding at your doorstep, you’ll receive a “Guarantee of Destruction” that ensures your confidential material has been destroyed according to the law.

To avoid your business becoming a statistic that proves the study right, be sure to properly train your staff and limit their access to confidential information. By including our mobile shredding services in your disposal process, you can be sure that the destruction of unwanted or obsolete material is secure and compliant with all information management laws. It’s easy to do. Simply check out our online request form, and we’ll get back to you promptly!