You don’t need to read the newspaper for very long before you find a story about hacked information, corporate espionage, or some kind of data breach. While spying is not exactly a new phenomenon, technology has changed the way bad actors obtain information that wasn’t meant for their eyes.

Here are some of the ways that commercial shredding services can guard your company’s data, and keep your business safe.

Total Electronic Destruction

If you need reliable commercial electronic data destruction there are true specialists to call, because today most companies store data on electronic devices. Any attempt to purge your office of sensitive data has to include electronics. It’s not enough that the electronic device is put into the garbage, or even broken — the microchips must be sufficiently destroyed so that all the data on the device is unrecoverable.

A list of all the electronic devices that professional shredders destroy may contain some surprising entries: USB or flash drives; old laptops, computers, tablets and smartphones; photocopier and printer memory cards; backup tapes; hard drives, and more.

Unorthodox Shredded Objects

Beyond electronics, depending on the nature of your business, information you need to destroy may take unconventional form. A truly professional destruction agency will be able to shred unorthodox forms of information, including: uniforms with logos; any type of label or packaging; cosmetic packaging; pharmaceutical packaging; dental moulds; X-rays; ID cards; access cards, and more.

However sensitive data appears, the company you hire must be capable of totally eliminating it.

Secure Paper Destruction, Made Easy

Your company likely has stores of paper documents which contain sensitive information — it could be trade secrets, tax information, information about clients, data about upcoming marketing campaigns, or something else your rivals would love to see.

If preserving these papers is not absolutely necessary then they need to be securely shredded. This means that the company you hire should be certified by the National Association for Information Destruction, which is the industry’s only quality assurance program. They should also be able to offer a certificate of destruction, a testament you can hold that the documents you’ve given to the company are safely destroyed.

Further, the company you engage should make destroying these documents easy. If there’s a high volume of paper to shred, the company should pick it up from your office and take it to their facility for it to be destroyed. For smaller loads, some companies have a mobile shredding truck, which allows them to do the job securely at your premises.

The efforts that business rivals take to get an inside edge on their competition have never been fiercer. Yet this is a threat that you won’t know is even happening until it’s too late. It’s important that you secure your company’s data proactively. Whether this means securely shredding banker’s boxes full of paper, electronic data, or some other form of information, call a professional shredder and see that your company’s private data is safe.