January 31, 2019
4 Easy Steps to Spring Cleaning for a ‘Safer’ New Year
It’s the start of a new year! Your organisation might be moving to a new location or planning to ‘declutter’ the office by getting rid of old documents to make way for the new year. In the midst of making way for new items, poor data handling is a common riskamong many employees who don’t see the importance of protecting an organisation’s data.
Here are some simple steps you can follow so that a data breach is not something that will appear on your company’s annual report:
- Preparation
When spring cleaning the office, everyone has an important role to play.
Appointed Data Protection Officers (DPO) have an important role to play by providing timely reminders to employees on how they can safely dispose of confidential data without allowing any to land in the hands of data mongers.
By reminding employees of the severe consequences that can result from the mismanagement of personal data, such as monetary fines by the PDPC, reputational damage and businesses losses, employees will be more motivated to exercise good data protection habits during the spring cleaning process.
- Discarding
Processes are especially crucial at this stage with even the tiniest oversight when it comes to the disposal of the company's private and confidential documents leading to dire consequences such as data falling in the hands of competitors.
Should data from the company's list of clients land in the hands of data thieves, fraudulent activity could also arise. What’s worse, a company could bear fines of up to SGD$1 million if found guilty of poor data security and protection practices. Therefore, employees must be prudent in ensuring all unwanted documents are being disposed of properly during spring cleaning.
- Partnering
If the company has any unwanted documents or e-waste items that need to be discarded, it is highly advised to engage a reputable third-party vendor to ensure that any unwanted information does not end up in the wrong hands. Having been awarded the General Waste Disposal Facility (GWDF) license by the National Environment Agency (NEA) Singapore, Shred-it is qualified to securely collect and dispose e-waste in accordance with high environmental standards.
- Practicing
Whether adopting a Shred-it All Policy to dispose of unwanted confidential documents safely or practicing a Clean Desk policy by ensuring that all information containing personal data is stored securely, organisations need to step up their data protection processes.
Start Protecting Your Business
An organisation that integrates personal data protection into its business processes can help reduce the risk of a data breach. Learn more about how Shred-it can protect your documents and hard-drives by contacting us for a free quote and a security risk assessment.
