In an era of identity theft and document fraud keeping your sensitive documents safe and out of reach is essential to your security. While you may be confident that you don’t keep your documents in any unsafe locations it is important to be humble in the face of cunning thieves as the devise many unique tactics to acquire your personal information. According to the FBI, it is estimated that information theft in the United States costs businesses nationwide nearly 24 billion dollars per year. In order to ensure that you don’t become one of the statistics, here are a few tips to follow to make sure you have secure document storage.

While much of our information is kept electronically, paper still accounts for the most common material found in waste around the world. It is also estimated that businesses still keep paper records of nearly 95% of all information relative to the business. This means that even though you submit your documents online to a business or service provider online, it is very likely that said business is printing out and filing your information to protect against server failures or other unpredictable computer errors. As online exchanges of personal or commercial businesses represent less than 10% of all identity theft cases, keeping tab on your paper records is vital for ensuring secure document storage.

There are several ways to make sure you keep your information safe and sound. Having onsite document shredding equipment is a must for any home or commercial office. Because identity theft has become such a risk in our daily business affairs, most doctors and health insurance providers, for example, are legally obliged under state and federal laws to shred any and all unused documents dictated by comprehensive data destruction plans. This is because, as we all know, patient and client documents are extremely sensitive and cannot be found in the wrong hands as it can cause severe risk to your health and safety. The same logic should be applied to your documents at home.

If you do own a business and have a seemingly overwhelming amount of paper documentation filed on site, there are professional document shredding services available to help simplify your secure document storage demands. Make sure to have on site shredding services available to all of your employees as well to maintain steady document security.

It is also a good idea, as electronic identity theft still remains less risky than physical identity theft, to scan your documents into an electronic database. Electronic document scanning solutions can help update and modernize your business, speeding up access to documents. In tandem with the right secure document storage software, electronic document records will help ensure your clients are secure, adding peace of mind to those that you do business with.

Becoming one of the many that have suffered from information theft can severely inhibit your life and prosperity. Take the necessary precautions to ensure your security right away. You never know when a thief may rummage through your recycled documents. Protect yourself today. See this link for more: www.sharkshredding.com