Identity theft thieves don't like paper shredding services. Why? Because it's one of the most effective ways to protect individuals and businesses from its extremely negative effects.

Consider the following interesting facts you may not have known about your document shredding services.

1. Most identity theft and fraud can be tied to paper information such as lost or stolen wallet or checkbook, stolen paper mail, fraudulent changes of address, or information taken from the garbage. According to the 2015 BakerHostetler Incident Response Report, 1 in 5 data breaches involve paper records.
2. Trash is considered public property. Identity theft thieves like that. According to the 1988 case, California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Fourth Amendment found that trash is public property if it’s on the curb.
3. Document shredding is not only important for security and cybersecurity reasons, it's also the law. Currently there are several state and federal laws which mandate that you safeguard all private information regarding your employees and customers. To remain compliant with these particular laws, you must destroy all confidential and outdated business information.  It is crucial to protect your business by securely shredding any document that no longer requires storage.

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Established in 1995, this law requires that healthcare industry professionals responsibly shred discarded patient information.
• The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) of 2003 was enforced to help reduce the risk of identity theft by requiring responsible shredding of discarded customer information.
• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) Enacted in 1999, this law requires banking and financial institutions to protect the privacy of consumer data.

4. The most advanced document shredding machines produce paper pieces measuring a mere 3 mm x 9 mm.
5. Shredding isn't just for paper. Some document shredding services will also shred and dispose of your hard drives. Other shredders can shred through rubber bands, staples, binder clips, and hanging file folders.
6. You will want a Certificate of Destruction from your shredding company, because that will ensure that your sensitive documents were completely destroyed, according to the highest standards in the industry.
7. Outsourcing your shredding is cost effective: When you consider employee wages and benefits, then factor in depreciation and maintenance costs on the equipment, it can cost more than $100 per month month to operate an office shredder. Plus, professional paper shredding eliminates time consuming in-house document disposal tasks that eat away at productivity and revenue generation.