Keeping your company’s data safe and secure is an extremely important part of running a business in Sarasota. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown many accepted practices out of balance, including attention to detail when it comes to the security of classified information. With a huge number of employees around the world having to leave the office and work from home, keeping company data secure may seem like a secondary issue at the moment. However, confidential information is in heightened danger in times like these when employees suddenly find themselves working in a more comfortable and familiar location than usual and are focusing on acclimating to a new work environment. Here are a few ways to maintain the data security of your Sarasota employees while business continues remotely: Create a clear new set of guidelines. Your employees may be unsure as to how to proceed with physical documents that need to be destroyed as well as how to protect their online data from hackers and phishing. Be straightforward and concise about exactly what your employees need to do to keep their confidential documents safe and their online connections protected during remote work. Provide a designated container for materials ready to be shredded. If you prioritize the safety of your company’s classified information, you probably already had a system in place for employees to either shred their own documents or gather them in a predetermined place to be shredded in bulk. Though managing this practice remotely may not be as convenient, you can still successfully ensure that any material that needs to be destroyed will be. Drop a secure container in each employee’s mailbox that they can use to store documents ready for destruction and set a time for pickup each week, or have them drop the containers back off at the office at a predetermined time. Be aware of COVID-related scams. Online scammers are taking advantage of the public’s desire to stay in the know about any updates concerning the spread of coronavirus. Make sure your employees are on the lookout for emails from unknown sources concerning COVID-19 and immediately reporting them as spam, as some of these emails contain malware that makes your employee’s device vulnerable to phishing. Utilize VPN. A virtual private network, or VPN, allows a device to interact with other devices as though it were operating on a private WiFi connection even if it isn’t. Especially since working remotely means many employees are using their own personal devices, have them download a business-grade VPN to ensure data security.

HOW TO KEEP YOU IDENTITY SAFE WITH BRADENTON DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION In order to keep themselves safe from property theft, many people lock their house and car doors on a regular basis as well as keep their wits about them when out on the street. Identity theft, while not as overt as a home invasion or stolen purse, can be just as damaging to your livelihood, if not more. Identity theft and fraud, whether concerning your personal information or that of your workplace, can compromise your finances, your credit, even your employment and personal relationships. One important way to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud in Bradenton is to regularly shred unneeded documents that contain confidential information. One of the primary reasons that identity thieves are able to commit fraud in the first place is the fact that many people simply don’t know that their documents should be destroyed at all, let alone which documents to ensure the destruction of. Here are a few common materials containing personal information that should be destroyed once their purpose has been served: Receipts and bills. Unless you plan on returning an item, receipts should be destroyed as soon as possible, particularly if they come from an ATM or bank. Hanging on to bills after payment is completed is unnecessary, and only puts you at risk for identity theft. In some cases, medical bills may be necessary to hold on to for approximately a year in case you should need to dispute totals with the hospital or your insurance provider, but you can shred the bill after that time has elapsed. Pay stubs. Pay stubs are another document you may want to keep for about a year, or until you receive your tax documents. Once you confirm that all totals match up, you can shred your pay stubs in order to keep existing documents that display your personal information to a minimum. Hard drives. If you’re planning to recycle an old hard drive or other data storage device, make sure that all data has been erased to prevent any breach of confidential information. In Bradenton, ShredQuick uses a degaussing machine to remove all electronic encoding from your device before shredding the hard drive and providing a certificate of destruction. Any other document with personal information. Throughout life, there are many documents you’ll need to fill out that require personal information such as your social security number, address, credit card information, and more. Keep a copy in a safe, secured place if you need to, but shred all unneeded documents containing any information that could be used to steal your identity.

Don't miss the Public Shred Event tomorrow! Our time slots are filling up fast! Call now to reserve your time - 941-755-2600

Public Shredding Event. Bring your old documents to be shredded while you watch - This event is by appointment only in 10 minute intervals. 9am-11am - Call ShredQuick office at 941-755-2600 to schedule your appointment for Friday 9/11. $20 per bag/box - Cash only! 4908 Lena Rd Bradenton 34211

FRI, 11 SEP Public Shred Event

FRI, 28 AUG Public Shred Event

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/job/19f6e990 -

3 DEVICES THAT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS WIPE IN BRADENTON Experts estimate that the average cost of data theft in 2020 topped $3.8 million. Bradenton offices and homes are as susceptible to information breaches as they are in any other part of the world. That’s why data wiping is so important. Data wiping is a process that renders old hard drive information unreadable. It doesn’t remove the data, but it overwrites it through several passes. Data wiping makes deleted data inaccessible while preserving current data (not to mention the hard drive). Three devices, in particular, should undergo periodic data wiping. Computers When you delete an old file from your computer’s hard drive, the data doesn’t go away entirely. It’s marked as “deleted” and disappears from your file directories. The space that it used to occupy is made available for new data. But especially with office computers, that doesn’t mean that your sensitive information is out of reach. If a computer is recycled or reassigned, “deleted” data may still linger unseen on the hard drive. Data and identity thieves can still find ways to get personal info, including account numbers, addresses, and phone numbers. Mere recycling doesn’t eliminate this threat. A complete data wipe better protects your office computer network. It’s a good idea for your home computer, too. Smartphones Smartphones use the same general deletion process as computer drives. Basic data deletion steps don’t get rid of everything. Some smartphone users believe that a “factory reset” will make all of their data disappear. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. As with hard drive file deletion, a factory reset only marks files as “deleted.” But the information is still there. Hackers can access it with standard data recovery software. When a smartphone is data-wiped, deleted files aren’t just “turned off.” They’re also put through encryption, which scrambles information so it’s unreadable, even if hackers get their hands on it. Gaming Consoles Gaming consoles aren’t stand-alone units anymore. Interactive gameplay is a key feature of all gaming systems. A player stores personal information on their console’s hard drive. That means, just like any other electronic device, gaming consoles can be hacked. Consoles can also be factory-reset back to their default states. But as with smartphones, that doesn’t eliminate all data. Media and SD cards can also contain information that hackers can exploit. ShredQuick: Bradenton’s Complete Data Wiping Solution Real, thorough data wiping is a complicated process that truly renders data irretrievable. ShredQuick helps all Bradenton businesses and families to keep their information safe with our data wiping solutions. Contact us to find out more.

FRI, APR 16 AT 9:00 AM EDT Public Shredding Event

FRI, APR 16 AT 9:00 AM EDT Public Shredding Event

Paper shredding costs money. Whether a Sarasota business contracts with a professional shredder or gets a shredder from an office supply store, it has to spend some cash. On the surface, a commercial-grade paper shredder that you operate yourself may seem more economical than a pro service. But there’s more to the total cost than a one-time purchase price. A professional shredder not only does the job more thoroughly and quickly — it can also save you money in the long run. Here’s how. No Maintenance or Replacement Costs A store-bought paper shredder can cost $40 to $400. Some heavy-duty shredders can set you back thousands of dollars. Low-end models can only handle limited numbers of sheets at a time. All models have working lives that are no longer than ten years if you use them infrequently. And that’s only if users take care of them, which means frequent blade lubrication and occasional servicing. Using a professional service means that you never have to buy replacement shredders. You don’t pay for oil, replacement blades, additional trash bags, or repairs. And you don’t have to pay for disposal or recycling services to get rid of the shredded leftovers. Professional shredding is ultimately far more cost-effective than using an in-house machine. No Additional Employee Costs With a retail device, paper shredding is a long process. You can only feed between 8 and 40 sheets at once, and the shredder takes its sweet time grinding them all. Then employees have to haul the shards to a disposal container. That’s all billable time. It takes your valuable employees away from finishing more important tasks. Professional shredders have far more capacity. Some can handle 500 sheets in a single execution. Service providers follow procedures to remove the waste quickly and safely. Taking that work out of your employees’ hands means that you will only pay them for what they were hired to do. That’s far more cost-efficient. Better Use of Office Space Paper shredders take up floor space. The more heavy-duty that a shredder is, the bigger it must be. You pay for that office space, along with whatever additional storage space you need. Having that space available for more important items or surplus storage can save money. With a professional shredder, you don’t need to reserve office space for an in-house unit. You also don’t have to set aside space for large bales of shredded paper. Cost-Effective Shredding for Sarasota ShredQuick saves Sarasota businesses the headache, the time, and the expense of shredding their own documents. Call ShredQuick today to get a fair estimate.

A shredding service might not be on your radar when it comes to saving money. It should be, though! Using a local shredding service can help you to reclaim space, while saving you money on having to buy the tools that are necessary in order to properly shred documents. Let’s take a brief look at the ways that any company in operation can save money by using a professional shredding service. 1. Reclaim and Reuse Space in Your Business Every bit of space in your office or warehouse costs money. For that reason, it’s easy to use a shredding service to cut down on the clutter of old boxes of paper without giving up additional room to house the equipment on your own. Reclaim that space and put it to better use by letting a team of qualified professionals handle all of your shredding. 2. Save Money on Equipment While some offices might be able to get away with having a standard residential shredder, businesses that have to dispose of thousands of pages each month can often spend hundreds of dollars to get the right equipment. Such a purchase can set your business back a fair amount. You can save money on upfront and long-term maintenance costs when you choose to use a shredding service instead! 3. Increase Employee Productivity Businesses should consider how much time can add up when employees have to do regular, mundane tasks. If every employee in a small business spent two minutes per day, five days a week, just shredding basic documents, they’d lose a full workday to shredding each year. A hired shredding service will allow your workers to focus on the tasks that only they can do without wasting time on shredding. 4. Save on Maintenance Any time you buy a machine for your business, you make an upfront investment and tie yourself to future repair costs. The blade and the motor of a standard shredder won’t last forever. Save the hassle and the time by allowing a shredding service to do the job for you. 5. Protecting Your Reputation If your customers believed that you were treating their valuable information with less care than you should, they would inevitably stop coming to your business. When you hire a professional shredding service, you can use that information as a selling point to maintaining good relationships with your customers. Any time that you stumble across an idea that can cut costs in your business without negatively affecting your product, it’s worth considering! By hiring a company to shred your documents, you can save time and money. What do you have to lose?