Our uniformed technicians arrive with our commercial shredding truck equipped with a self-contained mobile shredding unit. You can watch all of your most sensitive data get destroyed and packaged up for recycling. 

Here are some of the other benefits you’ll enjoy by taking advantage of this service. 

#1) Convenience

There’s no doubt about it: mobile shredding is an incredibly convenient option for destroying your most sensitive documents.

You don’t have to go anywhere, arrange for pick-up, or worry about transport. You can just send your documents to the truck, where they are destroyed right away. 

#2) Cost-Effectiveness

Shredding documents on-site is much less expensive than transporting them. If you like keeping your costs low, you’re going to love our Mobile Shredding Truck. 

#3) Increased Security

There’s nothing wrong with sending documents to a facility. Here at DSS, we have loads of secure solutions you can use.

Nevertheless, transporting documents requires everyone involved in the chain of custody to stay on guard. Security takes care of itself when we shred your documents on-site.

We are a certified member of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) and have maintained the highest level of security to date within the document shredding industry: a NAID “AAA” Certification for Mobile Document Shredding Services. Thus, you can rest assured that we never stop thinking about security and what it takes to keep your documents out of the wrong hands.

#4) Documentation

We give you a Certificate of Destruction for your records each time we come to your office, providing an important legal record of compliance with state and federal laws, as well as retention schedules. 

If you used our off-site shredding service, you’d get the same certificate. However, you would not receive it if you tried to handle all of your shredding yourself. With mobile on-site shredding, you have the added ability to watch the destruction with your own eyes and know for sure it is taking place. 

Schedule Services Now

Did you know our Mobile Shredding Trucks can shred up to 7,000 pounds of paper per hour? Shredding can be fast and easy, and you can even schedule ongoing services. 

Ready to explore your options? Contact Data Shredding Services today. 

The post 4 Advantages of On-Site Shredding appeared first on Shredding Houston.

If you don’t set a document destruction policy (also known as a DRP, document retention policy), there will be gaps in your data security that criminals will eventually be able to exploit. The result? Liability, and customers who lose trust in your company. 

Pairing shredding services with a firm and well-crafted policy is the best way to ensure that your company complies with the law and any regulatory standards that might govern your industry. 

Create a Written Policy

Every employee should receive a written copy of the policy, which should include:

1. The purpose of the policy is to help employees understand why it’s important to comply with it.
2. Which documents should be retained, and for how long?
3. Which documents should be shredded, and how often? 
4. Is it permissible for any paperwork to leave the property? If so, which papers may be taken, and when must they be returned? 
5. Who is responsible for making sure documents are handled correctly?

When writing your policy, you should consider:

• The types of documents your company produces or receives.
• Any regulatory requirements or legal requirements governing those documents, and how long you’re expected to retain them.
• How often you intend to review this policy, and who will be responsible for reviewing and updating it.

Make Document Destruction Easy

Document destruction becomes consistent when it’s easy and routine. Putting one person in charge of the office shredder isn’t efficient and depends on employees remembering to get the paperwork to the shred pile. 

Place secure containers throughout your building or office so that employees can dump their documents as they walk by. Make sure these containers are safe and lockable so that nobody can gain unauthorized access to sensitive information while it is sitting around waiting to be destroyed.

Data Shredding Services of Houston offers a Routine or Ongoing Container service to make this step as convenient and as easy as possible. You may combine this service with either our on-site Mobile Shredding truck service or our plant-based, off-site shredding service. 

Schedule Document Destruction Services

We provide Houston business owners with a wide range of document destruction solutions. We also offer a record storage service that allows us to protect your documents while allowing you full access to them, reducing the amount of office space you must spend on records retention.

We will custom-create a solution that works for your company and do our part to protect you from identity thieves and lawsuits. Call 1-888-SHRED-99 to get started today. 

The post How to Set an Excellent Document Destruction Policy appeared first on Shredding Houston.

Most people don’t have any trouble understanding why hard drive destruction is crucial. Just think about how many saved passwords you have in your browser right now. Think about all the sensitive documents that are sitting in your documents folder.

Unfortunately, many people struggle to understand what it takes to destroy all the data that exists on your average hard drive.

Myth: I’ll Throw it In Gross Garbage

You may have trouble understanding why anyone would dig through old coffee grounds or dirty diapers to get to hard drives. Just remember, we often export our garbage to landfills in other countries.

In some of those countries, desperate people make their living picking through garbage for gems like hard drives. They then sell their finds to criminal enterprises. Do you really want to take the chance?

Myth: I’ll Just Run a Magnet Over It

It takes a magnet that can exert at least 450 pounds of force in order to destroy a computer’s hard drive.

For comparison, a 2-pound industrial electromagnet requiring 29 Watts of power has a load limit of 300 pounds of force. The fridge magnets in your break room will not do the trick.

Even then, you have to remove the platinum plating around the hard drive.

Myth: I’ll Just Erase Everything

Copies of your data continue to exist on the hard drive even after you delete or trash them.

The operating system removes the pathway to the data, but it leaves the data intact. Plus, fragmented files might exist all over the hard drive.

Anyone who knows a little bit about anything can generally reconstruct this data.

Myth: I’ll Use Software

Software erasure is only a partial solution. It might work well enough for giving your computer to a family member who will only ever play games on it, but individual data chips will still exist.

If you’re in an industry with high compliance requirements, software might not even begin to meet your legal obligations.

Myth: Take a Hammer to It

We stand by the efficacy of physical destruction, but a hammer isn’t sufficient. The trick is to destroy every block of data far beyond the ability of any forensics expert to piece it together. Every one, every zero.

Unfortunately, most DIY solutions on the market are simply insufficient to protect your data.

Get Help With Hard Drive Destruction Today

We crush, smash, and destroy hard drives so thoroughly that even a dedicated criminal would be hard-pressed to tell the scrap metal that remains was ever a hard drive! We also protect your data by destroying CDs, X-rays, and more.

Want to stop worrying about your data? Put the hammer away, step away from the magnet, and call Data Shredding Services of Houston, TX. We’re a leading media destruction company, and we’ll be happy to help!

The post Myths and Facts About Hard Drive Destruction appeared first on Shredding Houston.

Data breaches destroy customer confidence in your company. 

They also leave you on the hook for customer damage, and identity theft is costly. Thus, it’s a good idea to take the potential for breaches seriously.

Here are five ways you can prevent data breaches at your company.

#1) Educate Your Employees

Your employees are the first line of defense against any data breach. Train them to protect your security by:

• Using strong passwords
• Using multi-factor authentication
• Spotting common scams
• Data protection regulations

You should also train them on which documents to shred and when and provide them with shredding receptacles. 

#2) Take Security Measures

Every company needs to take security measures to defend against hackers.

• Use anti-virus software
• Update your website to a secure https:// website 
• Hire someone to monitor your network
• Backup your data, but keep only what you need
• Encrypt data before sending it

You may need to hire an expert to update your company’s data protection plan. 

#3) Keep Software Up to Date 

Nobody likes taking the time to update software, but those patches are vital to maintaining your security. Updates almost always include patches that close hacker loopholes. 

Instruct your employees to take the time when the alert shows up, even if it interrupts their work day. 

#4) Perform Regular Audits 

Schedule annual security audits to ensure that your sensitive information is being protected to the best of your ability. An audit can help your company identify system vulnerabilities and strengthen security protocols. 

#5) Destroy Data Properly

Destroying hard drives and paper copies of sensitive data is the best way to ensure it stays out of criminal hands. Many criminals simply grab what they need right out of the garbage.

Data Shredding Services offers the most comprehensive hard drive destruction on the market. 

We also offer mobile or scheduled shredding services, which will allow you to place receptacles in your office. Employees dump the documents into a locked container. We pick up the container on a regular schedule and destroy everything inside past reconstruction.

In both cases, you get the highest degree of protection against data theft, and we provide you with a Certificate of Destruction that you can use to help defend yourself should a legal case arise in the future. 

Get Help Today

Request a quote for our shredding services. We will gladly customize a solution designed to defend your company from hackers, scammers, and data salesmen. 

Don’t become the next big data breach headline.  Call Data Shredding Services of Houston today.

The post 5 Ways to Prevent a Data Breach | Data Shredding Services appeared first on Shredding Houston.

Data Shredding Services Site Safety – 1277 Days without a Loss Time Injury

For Data Shredding Services of Texas, Inc.’s employee workforce, June 1, 2018 marked 1,277 days without a lost-time injury (LTI).  The achievement is a culmination of enhanced reporting, monitoring, and auditing, as well as an increased focus on preventative measures. By embracing a holistic approach to safety that includes training on workplace practices such as machine-specific lockout/tagout procedures, proper lifting techniques, and on-the-road safety, DSS has clocked in over three and a half years worked without a recordable injury.

Operations Manager Cesar Gonzalez credits the recently-achieved benchmark to the rich safety culture at Data Shredding Services of Texas, Inc., stating that “this achievement is a reflection of the company’s faithfulness to creating a work environment where everyone looks after themselves and their colleagues.  The safety-workplace education we provide is welcomed, appreciated, and adhered to by all of our team members.” DSS employees, he added, are trained monthly and tested for proficiency.

In addition to participating in interactive trainings that strengthen the company’s safety culture, DSS employees also perform pre-task evaluations to identify and correct all hazards prior to starting work.  Moreover, internal processes which encourage both collective and individual responsibility help employees to not only hold each other accountable but also to achieve the high level of professionalism for which Data Shredding Services of Texas, Inc. is known.

For additional information, please feel free to contact us directly.

Data Shredding Services of Texas, Inc.

615 West 38th Street
Houston, TX 77018
1.888.747.3399
www.shreddinghouston.com

The post Data Shredding Services of Texas, Inc. Surpasses Thousand-Day Safety Milestone appeared first on Shredding Houston.

Having your office taken over by paperwork is not something that is good for your business. Oftentimes, having papers and files strewn all over the place means that you will have to sort through those when you are trying to find specific forms and information. One option that you have for getting the paperwork under control is hiring shredding services in Houston to get rid of the papers without putting the information at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

How often do you need shredding services?

One important factor that you have to consider is how often you will need shredding services. This is important because you will need to choose between a one-off shredding or a regular shredding.

The frequency of shredding is something that you can decide. If you do not have a lot of paperwork or have a large storage area, you might be able to have biannual or annual shreddings. If you go through a lot of paper or do not have a large storage area, it may be a better idea to choose a monthly, quarterly, or weekly shredding.

One-off shredding might be appropriate if you don’t have a lot of paperwork and are not likely going to have enough to require regular disposal. This would also be the case if you do not have confidential information that must be destroyed.

How much do you need shredded at each session?

The amount of paper you are going to need shredded is another consideration. The more paper you are going to need shredded, the more time it will take. This can have an impact on the scheduling for the shredding services. For example, you would not want to have a four-hour project starting at 4 pm if you need to close your business at 5 pm.

How many locations require shredding services?

If your company has more than one location, you need to decide if you need shredding services for each location. In some cases, you might need to have each location serviced separately, while other cases may allow you to transport all the paper that needs to be shredded to a central location and have the shredding take care of there. If you choose to use a central location, make sure that you take great care in handling sensitive documents. and that your handling adheres to the standards of the law.

What laws must you follow in order to maintain document security?

Some industries are bound by laws that govern document security. This means that you will have to know what laws pertain to your business. In some cases, these laws dictate how long documents are kept. They can also dictate how the documents must be destroyed.

Some example laws that might apply to your company include:

• The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
• The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act

Working with a shredding company that is familiar with the laws that pertain to your case can help ensure that you are covered. The last thing you want to have happen is to find out that your company’s documents have not been destroyed in an appropriate and legal manner.

Why do you want shredding services in Houston?

The purpose of the shredding services is important. If you are hiring a shredding service so that you can just do away with excess paper, security might not be a factor in your case. If you are hiring a shredding service so that you can ensure the information on the documents isn’t getting into the wrong hands, security will be a huge factor.

Hiring a paper-shredding company can also help you to get ready to go paperless. Instead of hanging onto all of the paper copies of documents, you can scan those into a computer. They will be easy to search for and find if they are in computer files.

Is your budget prepared for the shredding services?

Your budget is another factor that can impact your ability to hire a shredding service. Getting an estimate for the job that you need done can help you to ensure that you are prepared to cover the costs.

If you get the quote and find that the budget is tight, you should consider how important it is to shred the documents and whether your budget can sustain the cost of a shredding service. Ultimately however, your company’s security and the security of your client’s information is well worth the cost of having the documents shredded — even if that means having to adjust the budget.

Do you need on-site or off-site shredding?

The answer to this question depends on your needs and/or preferences. If you choose the on-site shredding services, a mobile shredding truck will come to your company to get the job done. If you choose off-site shredding, we bring secure containers to your company. Papers that need to be shredded are placed in these. When those containers are full, we pick them up and transport them securely to the off-site shredding facility. The documents are then destroyed in accordance with laws that pertain to your business.

How concerned are you about the environment?

What happens to the paper after it is shredded is a consideration for some people. Knowing that the paper will be recycled is one point that helps companies to choose a paper shredding company in Houston. When the paper is recycled after destruction, it is environmentally friendly.

Sources:

 https://www.angieslist.com/articles/confidential-paper-shredding-tips-businesses.htm

Why Shred?

The post Eight Questions to Consider When Choosing Shredding Services in Houston appeared first on Shredding Houston.

The post 4 Common Causes of Identity Theft appeared first on Shredding Houston.

One way to get rid of unneeded papers is through mobile shredding. Houston schools and homeschool families might benefit from this type of shredding service. Mobile shredding trucks can handle 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of paper per hour, so this can be a short process for smaller jobs or a longer process for larger jobs.

Public and Private Schools

Public and private schools go through massive amounts of paper each year. If these schools tried to keep all of the paper that was used, those institutions would be overrun with paper. Since that isn’t feasible, public and private schools can use mobile shredding services to get rid of some of the paper.

Help the Environment

When you think of mobile shredding services, you shouldn’t think just of the protected documents that will be heading to the vehicle. Instead, you can shred all of the papers that your school uses. Not only is this helpful since you won’t have to try to personally dispose of all of that paper, but you can also help the environment.

Instead of sending large amounts of paper to a landfill to never be used again, papers that you have shredded with the mobile shredding service are sent off for recycling so that they can be used in a new form . Since what has been shredded is bundled into large bundles, the information on the pages is safe.

It might be possible for you to get the shredded paper back if your school needs it for projects, which could be helpful if students have arts and crafts projects, such as paper mache crafts. It is also helpful if your school is going to assemble care packages to ship to military members or other people since shredded paper is an excellent packing material.

Lower Storage Fees

Your school can save a lot of money in storage costs if you don’t have to rent a building or other place to keep documents that are no longer needed. If you are only using mobile shredding to get rid of documents that are past the date on which they must be kept by law, you can schedule an annual mobile shredding session so you can get rid of the documents that have aged out over the past 12 months.

If your school has moved toward digital records and is keeping digital files instead of paper files, you can schedule mobile shredding services at regular intervals to come and destroy the papers that have been scanned and saved digitally. This saves additional space and makes it easier to find paper documents that you need to keep in the original format.

Data destruction services can destroy the digital records when the time your school has to keep them is up. Even though you will have to keep copies of the digital records, these digital records take up less physical space than boxes upon boxes of actual paper documents.

Home Schools

Homeschool families can benefit from mobile shredding services. Just like traditional schools, homeschool families go through massive amounts of paper in a year. Keeping all of the paper isn’t always possible, especially for families with multiple children.

Mobile shredding services, which can come out monthly, annually, or on any schedule that meets your needs, can help you to get rid of any unnecessary papers. If there are multiple homeschool families in your area, you might be able to work out a shredding day on which all families bring their papers to have them shredded. This is a possible benefit that a homeschool co-op or partnership can look into for the homeschool families that are members.

Records to Keep

When you are going through records for homeschooling, you should carefully consider what you are going to keep. Texas doesn’t require you to keep any educational records, but keeping some records can be very useful. Teens who are in high school in a homeschool might need to keep records that could be necessary for college admission. This could include information that would be included on transcripts.

As is the case with traditional schools, you can always keep digital copies of records by scanning them. This might make it easier to put your hands on documents you need because you can just search on your computer instead of trying to go through file boxes.

Preparing for Mobile Shred Day

When mobile shred day arrives, the papers must be ready to go into the shredder. The shredding truck is self-contained, so it runs on its own power. The boxes that are brought to the shredding vehicle will be dumped into the shredder. You must remove anything that is hazardous from the papers. You can leave staples and rubber bands on the papers, but you need to remove anything else on the paper.

When the shredding is done, you will be responsible for the clean up. This includes picking up the boxes that were used to transport the papers to the mobile shredding truck.

Sources:

http://www.adeanet.org/adea/downloadcenter/NESIS/E-records-021065.pdf

http://www.thsc.org/homeschooling-in-texas/state-requirements/

Recordkeeping

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Make Learning Fun

Fun lessons are ones that children will remember, and it doesn’t take much. For younger children, colorful worksheets, color pages, and hands-on lessons are fun. For older children, computer-based learning and hands-on activities are fun.

What you want to avoid when you are homeschooling your child is having them stress out over work. They shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the work they are doing since you control the curriculum.

Remember to Include Visual Forms

Books, workbooks and printed materials are some of the visual educational forms that meet requirements in Texas. Their goal is to show the child the concepts that are introduced. The visual forms can involve reading a book about a favorite subject and taking a test or completing a worksheet after the lesson is completed.

Just because you need to have visual forms of materials as part of a lesson doesn’t mean that you can only use these forms for the lessons. Taking a trip to an art museum is an acceptable enrichment activity for a lesson in the arts. A trip to the symphony is ideal for music lessons. You could even take a trip to an amusement park as part of a physics lesson.

Include the Five Core Subjects

Good citizenship, writing, reading, mathematics, and grammar are the five core subjects that you are required to teach your children. On top of these, you and your child can choose other lessons in social studies, fine arts, science, physical education, and other subjects that interest your child.

It is possible to incorporate the core subjects in lessons about other subjects. Reading a story about your child’s favorite animal, writing out a story about a mythical creature, and factoring angles for building something all bring core subjects into the picture.

Use Good Record Keeping

You need to keep good records of what your child does for their schooling. One way to do this is to keep paper records of the lessons, activities, and grades. At the end of each semester, year, or unit, you can scan the records, worksheets, tests, and other important documents so you can store them on a jump drive. This is an easy way to keep the information organized without having to hang on to all of the original documents.

As you decide what records you are going to scan and which ones can just be thrown away without scanning, it is better to err on the side of caution. If you think that you might need proof of something later, scan and keep the document. You should also scan and keep things that your child is especially proud of. If you decide to throw something away, its best to choose document shredding as the way to dispose of sensitive documents.

Coincidentally, scanning and organizing things is a good strategy for parents who don’t homeschool because you can keep art projects and other items that your child makes in school. Refrigerator art is a nice touch to your kitchen, but when it is time to rotate out to new art, you have to do something with the old art.

Keep Information Protected

With homeschooling comes printables, records, and other paperwork that has to be organized. While it might be tempting to just throw things away, you should keep anything with sensitive information out of the trash. Those items include transcripts, vaccination records, and anything else that has your child’s full name, birthday, Social Security number, and other information.

Since you don’t want to throw documents with sensitive information away, you now have to figure out what to do with it. Document shredding is one option. This lets you dispose of those documents without having to worry about the information getting into the wrong hands. Additionally, you can also add in other documents, such as financial records and health records, that are ready to be disposed of.

Sources:

https://www.thsc.org/homeschooling-in-texas/

http://www.thsc.org/homeschooling-in-texas/state-requirements/

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With the alarming amount of data breaches occurring daily in the United States, and ongoing identity theft cases, it’s no wonder more and more businesses are choosing to be proactive. Outsourcing your paper shredding needs is a smart step towards protecting your employees and customers, keeping sensitive information safe. So how do you go about choosing a document destruction company to look after your paper shredding? Providing an outside company the permission to handle your documents is a big decision, and one that should involve careful research and consideration first.

Here are a couple of important questions work asking: Is the document destruction staff staff knowledge and properly trained? What security measures do they have in place? How do they ensure all documents are securely destroyed? These are all very good questions to ask, prior to hiring a document destruction company for your shredding needs.

While some shredding companies will claim their document destruction process is entirely secure and safe, if they do not provide you in adequate evidence that displays this, you should consider shredding elsewhere. What is meant by provided evidence? When you work with a reputable shredding company, they will immediately present you with a Certificate of Destruction upon shredding, as added reassurance your material has been securely shred. Always ask for this piece of information; if this is denied to you, consider that a red flag and move on to a shredding company that implements this as part of their shredding process.

A Certificate of Destruction offers the following information to your Houston Business:

• Date and site where shredding took place
• Distinct serial number
• Clear statement of governing terms and conditions
• Witness to the shredding process (this could be a professional from the shredding provider, or one of your employees)

Always request a Certificate of Destruction if this isn’t voluntarily presented to you; for your own protection as a company, you should never accept anything less. Secure document destruction is the only process that guarantees your sensitive material has been completely destroyed. Should any privacy issues arise, this certificate acts as peace of mind in knowing there is accountability to fall back on, should any privacy issues arise.

Data Shredding Services in Houston is your trustworthy source for safe and secure shredding, each and every time. Following each shred appointment, we will present you with a Certificate of Destruction, outlining that our shredding process is in fact compliant with current legislation, and that we take the protection of our customers seriously.

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