Information destruction services

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In October 2008, the Information Commissioner stated that the number of data breaches reported to the organisation had soared to 277 in the previous twelve months. These figures include 80 reported breaches by the private sector, 75 within the NHS and other health bodies, 28 reported by central government, 26 by local authorities and 47 by the rest of the public sector.

There are undoubtedly many other breaches that go unreported that will significantly increase the numbers released by the Information Commissioner.

Consequently, there are a number of security precautions that can be taken when dealing with sensitive information disposal. These include on and off-site as well as incineration.

On-site
An effective method of destroying sensitive information and data, which can be carried out on the customer’s site. A professional ID company will travel to the organisation’s premises and collect the information for destruction. Staff vetted to the British Standard 7858 will then shred the information and data on-site and the materials will be compacted into the rear storage compartment of the lorry to be take away for recycling. The materials are shredded beyond recognition and the ID company is required to provide the customer with a full audit trail including certification of destruction.



Off-site
This involves an ID company picking up the information for destruction from the organisation’s site and taking it away in a secure truck to be destroyed off-site. The destruction must be carried out under contract and evidenced in writing. BSIA ID companies’ premises comply with the security requirements set out in the European Standard EN 15713, including site security, recording the destruction process and vetting staff to BS 7858. For both on-site and off-site shredding, documents are shredded to sizes specified within the European Standard EN 15713 to ensure that documents cannot be reconstituted.


Incineration
An additional method of destroying information is incineration. The energy that is produced from incineration then feeds back into the National Grid to create power.

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