Shred-it/Securit Asks, How Secure Is Your Company Information?

Monday, May 11, 2009 - US, CAN (EN), UK

Ottawa Business Journal

By Ottawa Business Journal Staff

Is your reputation worth 40 minutes of your time?

According to the Ottawa Police, fraud is on the rise in the National Capital Region. Last year, more than 3,300 fraud cases were reported, with the number one scam involving identify theft and theft of customer information. The Consumers Measures Committee reports that "Inside jobs" are on the rise as thieves increasingly steal clients' personal information from within organizations.

According to the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus, identity theft costs Canadian businesses an estimated $2.5 billion a year.

Which begs the question—are you going to sufficient lengths to ensure your own, and your clients', confidential information does not fall into the wrong hands? In addition to paper, what about information stored on computer hard drives, Flash drives, floppy disks and CD-ROMS?

In less than an hour, Shred-it can help you answer these questions and provide peace of mind with a free security audit that can identify areas that could lead to a security breach.

The damage to a business's reputation, and the liability, of allowing confidential information to leak out can be devastating. Securing this information is not only a matter of trust with your valued clientele, it is a legal obligation under Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Identity thieves typically acquire confidential information from trash bins and personal mail. They often run sophisticated operations employing the latest in technology to reconstruct documents that have been run through lowend strip shredders or recover data supposedly deleted from recorded media.

From its world-class 86,000-square-foot facility on Kenaston Street in the east end, Shred-it/Securit provides secure and reliable options for destroying or storing sensitive company information. Here the emphasis is on exceeding clients' expectations with a local Customer Care team that ensures a live person answers the phone when they call.

Shred-it/Securit is a Canadian success story that has been serving organizations large and small in the Ottawa area since 1993. It has become the trusted name in secure document destruction. Fifty-five per cent of Securit/Shred-it's new clients have never used such a service before and the local Ottawa branch boasts the highest customer service ratings within its global network.

"We focus on what matters most to our clients – providing reliable, discreet and on-time service, that helps them meet their compliance obligations and reduce costs, enabling them to focus on what's important – their business," says Graham Acreman, General Manager of Shred-it/Securit's operations serving Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

State Farm Insurance, SMART Technologies, turn to Shred-it

For State Farm Insurance on Robertson Road, Shred-It has been the service provider of choice for more than three years. State Farm generates a significant amount of sensitive client documentation. Once this paper has been transferred to a digital format, it is ready for destruction.

"With Shred-it we've always enjoyed great professional service and even more importantly, the peace of mind that comes from knowing our clients' personal information will not fall into the wrong hands," says Office Manager Joyce Gilchrist.

At SMART Technologies ULC, a large high-tech company that develops interactive white boards primarily, protecting intellectual property related to product development and customer information is critical. The company has steadily grown its engagement with Shred-it over the past three years.

"We work in a highly competitive industry," says Facilities Coordinator Bruce Jackson. "With Shred-it I have confidence that our private material is being collected, transported and disposed off safely and securely at every step."

For more information, please visit www.shredit.com/ or call 1-877-637-4733.

Lending a hand to cancer research and treatment

Shred-it takes information security so seriously it provides secure document destruction services for free with its Shredit for a Cure initiative. On the second Saturday of each month, members of the public can bring up to six cubic feet of material to be shredded to the Kenaston Street facility. There is no cost for this service, but individuals are encouraged to make a donation at that time to the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

Saving trees everywhere

Organizations that turn to Shred-it can do so confident that they are making the environmentally sound choice. One hundred per cent of the documents destroyed are recycled into new paper products, saving an estimated nine million trees a year. Plastics and metals from recorded media are also recycled wherever possible.

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