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Author: Crown Information Managment

April 13th is Identity Theft Day

When someone applies for a loan, they expect to be approved. Unfortunately, some people find that their credit has been marred by someone other than themselves. A stranger managed to open credit cards, charge them up, and fail to pay them. This type of crime is called identity theft, and no one is immune from it. Thieves will root through garbage to find documents with personal identification information. They will use unwiped hard drives to piece together bits of data. These efforts, along with many online scams, are used to steal the identities of hardworking individuals. It is prolific enough that April 13th is known as Identity Theft Day. If you house personal information for clients, you will want to ensure that you have processes to protect them and save your reputation. A dependable and certified data management company is the first place to turn.

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Document Spring Cleaning Strategies for Your Business

Do you have dust collecting on the piles of paperwork surrounding your desk? It’s easy to make a neat stack thinking you will get things filed later. However, when months pass and nothing has moved, you will find your cluttered office hard to bear. Not to mention, you may have a security risk as well, since anyone can come in and take off with a confidential file. Spring cleaning isn’t just for homes. It’s a vital ritual your company should institute, especially if you house personal, legal, or medical records. Records management companies provide the best options for safely and securely housing e-records and paper documents. 

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Tax Season Is Here!

Proper Records Keeping Makes Filing Taxes a Breeze

Spring brings many things, including the dreaded ‘Tax Man.’ If you have a poor record keeping process, this time of year will bring you dread. It’s also possible that you are missing out on tax breaks because of a missing piece of paper. Worse, you could face an audit and fail it for lack of document support. The personification of this annual process has both companies and individuals scrambling to pull together all necessary data and paperwork for their accountants. The services of a records management company ensure you have all your data in a secure location with easy access all year round, making next tax season a breeze. 

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Document Destruction Facts 

Selecting the Right Destruction Company for Businesses in Melbourne, Florida 

How many documents are present where you are right now, that present security risks? Consider things like contact information, account numbers, billing statements, credit card receipts, document ownership, and much more. Getting rid of files, papers, books, ledgers, and other material that puts a company or individual at risk for security breaches makes sense. To do that, turn to a document destruction company.

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Don’t Throw Your Old Computers in the Dumpster

The Importance of Hard Drive Destruction

The investment in new computers, laptops, and other devices allows organizations and individuals to upgrade to new products with better features. Yet, old computers should never get tossed out in the dumpster. Placing them into the trash puts all the potentially sensitive data on those devices at risk – anyone can pull something out of a dumpster and, with a bit of knowledge, access unsecured (and sometimes secured) information. 

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New Year Goals: Free Up Valuable Space

Many companies use the end of one year and the beginning of another to tidy up records and documents. The year’s paperwork often gets stuffed into filing cabinets or banker’s boxes and shoved into a storage room. Until you run out of storage space, this isn’t a bad plan. Soon, boxes are hanging out at the water cooler along with your team members. What happens when your company grows, and you add new people, but you don’t have room for them? Moving physical records to offsite storage answers these dilemmas and more. 

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New Habits for the New Year: Getting Your Offices in Order by Cleaning Out and Purging Documents, Hard Drives, Etc.

for a clean desk and office. You can do this easily when you develop new habits to regularly clean and purge files and other items. Purging is not a once done, always done, matter. For the most success, it should be done regularly. Utilizing the services of a certified shredding company will have you well on your way to the cleaner, less cluttered office you envision for the New Year. 

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Ensuring Document Security & Record Keeping Compliance in a Hybrid Environment

The 30-second commute took on new meaning when the COVID-19 pandemic came on the scene. Before, employees were hard-pressed to get their boss to agree to let them work from home. This was with good reason. How did employers know that their team would get their work done? There was also the cybersecurity issue. It is harder to manage security with employees spread out across town or worldwide and working from their dining room table. However, it is possible to keep data safe in employees’ homes and records securely when working in a hybrid environment when you enlist the services of an information management company

Ideas to Keep Information Secure in a Hybrid Work Environment 

Limiting exposure to the COVID-19 virus is possible in a hybrid work environment. Your employees may enjoy many benefits such as safety, productivity, and career satisfaction, but you need to mitigate some data security risks. Here are a few strategies to assist you and your team in securing data:

  1. Remind Your Team about Data Security Policies Regularly: We are so used to carrying many types of technology that we can easily forget phones and laptops can be hacked. If your team is carting paper records back and forth between work and home, you have increased risks. It is a great idea to cover their responsibilities to protect information and reinforce steps they can take to protect said sensitive information, such as:
    • Keep passwords complex and confidential
    • Regularly change passwords
    • Share the dangers of phishing, how to recognize it, and what they need to do if they receive a suspicious email
    • Discuss how to properly dispose of unnecessary paper, mainly when they are of confidential nature
  1. Work with IT to Develop Multiple Layers of Cybersecurity: The more layers of safety you have, the better. Aim for protections such as multi-factor authentication, data encryption, firewalls, and antivirus software. The payoff will be huge when you consider the many different ways to mitigate risk while allowing easier data sharing between home and work.
  2. Establish a Secure Document Disposal System: There is still quite a bit of paper circulating within businesses. Your team needs to know what to do with documents they no longer need. Utilizing professional shredding services is the safest option, offering you peace of mind that your records are thoroughly destroyed according to regulations.

Support Your Team with Help from Crown Information Management

Encourage the hybrid work environment when you consider and plan for different scenarios and hire a qualified documents storage and shredding company like Crown Information Management. We have the credentials to ease your conscience. Not only can we set up shredding bins and shred onsite, but we also offer storage solutions you can depend on. Contact us today to learn more.

For secure, pest-free storage and easy and timely destruction of records, count on a SOC1 Level 2 Report,NAID AAA, and PCI Certified company. Call Crown Information Management at 800-979-9545 or contact us online to learn more about our document storage and shredding services. 

Putting Your Records & Documents to Bed for 2021

The end of the year means many things. It is generally the end of the fiscal year for businesses, and requires some recordkeeping and document clean-up. Accounting departments gather together financial records, such as taxes. Human Resource departments gather together personnel records. Each group has specific regulations dictating what needs to be kept and what needs to be destroyed. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to know the next best move, and a new year is a great time to start fresh. How can you do that effectively? Choosing a qualified document management company is the first step in the right direction. 

5 Tips for Year-End Records Management and Shredding 

After enlisting the services of a records management company, gather your team together to make the process easier. You might even have a day dedicated to the tasks at hand, including company-provided lunch. You can all beat the overwhelm that can come with purging old records by utilizing these five tips:

  1. Follow Your Retention Policy: Your company should have a written plan in place, and if it doesn’t, it’s time to make one. A policy tells employees how long records should be stored, how often to move these files and the process for purging them.
  2. Know What Document Can be Disposed of and How: Anytime you handle sensitive or personal information, you should have policies in place. Regulations indicate how to handle destruction processes. Working with a NAID-certified company, you can rest assured your documents will be appropriately destroyed.
  3. Enlist the Services of a Qualified Shredding Company: For added secure shredding, work with a shredding company that will set locked bins around your office for employees to place documents into. Make it practice to immediately put papers in need of shredding into the appropriate container.
  4. Utilized Common Searches to Aid in Organizing: If you do not have an organized way to sort and purge your files, now is a great time to begin one. Do you use names? Do you use numbers? Whatever is the most common way to search records, use it. You will be glad you have a better way to find the files you need throughout the year.
  5. Move Archived Records to a Secure Offsite Facility: You may find that keeping all your documents in your office gets quite crowded. It also puts private information at risk. Files can be misplaced, or visitors may have accidental access to things they shouldn’t. Offsite storage facilities with qualified and certified companies ensure a higher level of safety.

Make a Great Start to the New Year – Choose Crown Information Management

Start the year off right with adequately purged and securely stored records. The team at Crown Information Management stands ready to assist you with your shredding and storage needs. We are NAID certified, which means we have met the stringent qualifications required to attain certification. Contact us today for more information on how we can help your organization.

For secure, pest-free storage and easy and timely destruction of records, count on a SOC1 Level 2 Report,NAID AAA, and PCI Certified company. Call Crown Information Management at 800-979-9545 or contact us online to learn more about our document storage and shredding services.