Security-Shred of Northern California

Due to identity theft scams, the United States has developed plenty of privacy laws such as The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999; Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA); and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) that obligate businesses to adhere to the privacy and security policies instructed by their state law.

Some of these laws require companies to protect their client and employee personal data by shredding this information and ensuring a correct disposal. They must be cautious and manage these documents very carefully to avoid leaks of information, scams and any misuse of this data.

In order to reduce costs, some companies have decided to hire outsourcing shredding services to do the job. In the past, companies used to gather the documents and haul them to the shredding company to destroy it. However, nowadays mobile shredding companies bring an equipped truck with an industrial shredder directly to your office or home.

Why are mobile shredders better than traditional shredders?

Mobile shredders destruct the documents right in front of your house or office, instead of taking your private documents to another location for shredding. It provides added security, you won´t have to trust the company or the employees, you are able to watch as they tear down the documents/materials.

What should I look for in a Mobile Shredding Company?

First of all, the company must be SECURE, licensed and insured. Secondly, you need to check what type of procedures they use when hiring their employees, remember they will be handling your sensitive data; all employees should be subject to drug and background tests. Next, make sure they provide you with a Certificate of Destruction, as it serves to prove you have taken the required steps to guard your customer and employee information in case the authorities decide perform an audit.

Why should I hire a company if I can have my employees do it?

There are several reasons why you should hire a professional company to do this type of work. Let´s start with the security issue; employees could keep some information to themselves, sell it or lend it to a third party. Not only is your company´s information exposed, but your client´s data as well.

The second reason is you and your staff will have the time to focus on their tasks without affecting production time, your offices won´t get messy and you won´t to be concerned about disposing the shredded materials.

Several mobile shredding companies recycle the shredded materials. If you wish to contribute with Mother Nature, this is a great way to do so; these companies recycle the paper and materials into other products.

Only a month ago 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen with the majority of the victims being US citizens and most of them are still unaware of their situation. Most of us think “this will never happen to me” but it DOES. Also, if you live in the states of Arizona, Nevada or California, you should be extra careful, as these states are the top three most affected by these practices; this, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The number of victims in California is 41,396; in Nevada 2,994; and 9,113 in Arizona. For instance, in California, 25% of the victims were affected by credit card frauds, 17% for bank fraud and another 17% for employment frauds. Also, the major percent of these frauds affected new accounts and 52% of victims were between 18 and 39 years old.

There are plenty of Identity Theft Methods, we will present the most common and easy ways to steal your identity and provide some tips to prevent it:

- Thieves may rob your correspondence, right from your mailbox. The more information they get from you, the easier it is for them to access your bank accounts. License numbers, pre-approved credit cards, date of birth, among others. Check your mailbox constantly and ask your banks to provide a bank statement and look for any suspicious movements. Keep track of your credit report for all the accounts listed under your name.

- Thieves may go through your garbage. Either at home or at work, they will search for any checks, credit cards, bank statements, address, phone, name or any personal data they can retrieve. Shred documents or hire a shredding company to take care of your basic and confidential information before you throw it to the garbage. Keep your credit card information and your SSN in a safety box.

- You aren´t safe at work either… Be very careful when providing personal information or passwords. There have been several leaks of information all over the country. There have also been cases of co-workers stealing information from their peer´s stations or accessing their computers while they are in the bathroom or on a break. Do not provide your data unless it is completely necessary, and try not to provide sensitive information when you are on the phone. Create long complex passwords, do not share them, and block your PC when you leave your station, even if it´s only for five minutes. - Sweepstakes and prizes. When something sounds too good to be truth, it probably isn´t. The clerk on the phone will tell you that you have won a great prize and that they just need some of your personal information or a small fee from your credit card. Do NOT provide any of those over the phone, thousands and thousands of people have been cheated using this scam scheme, especially elderly people. If you believe you have won a prize, always check directly with the company and investigate further prior to releasing and info.

Below you will find DO´s and DON´Ts recommended by the FBI:

DO:

• Order a copy of your credit report each year from one of the national credit bureaus and review it closely for any questionable entries;
• Shred or cut up all credit card receipts and old bank statements and bills before throwing them away;
• Close all unused credit card or bank accounts;
• Keep your PIN number hidden when you use an ATM or public telephone;

DON’T:

• Give out personal information via the phone, mail, or Internet unless YOU initiated contact;
• Carry information like your Social Security Number (SSN) or any PIN numbers or passwords in your purse or wallet;
• Put your SSN on your checks or other identifiers.



Security-Shred is Vacaville’s only full service shredding company.  Other Shredding companies we offer a “Lowest Price Guaranteed or it’s Free” commitment, not quality service and a great reputation.

Our shred truck provides you with the quickest, most complete, and most confidential destruction of your sensitive documents. Our mobile shredding service can come to your place of business, ensuring that your unwanted documents are destroyed in the most convenient and cost-effective manner available. Our truck is equipped with a monitor, so you may watch your documents going in and being expelled in a pulverized state.

“I get excited, because I actually get mail, and so I open it and I’m like, ‘Oh, it’s a credit card, don’t need it. I just throw it away.’ I don’t shred it,” said student Carolyn Snyder.

Carolyn doesn´t own a paper shredder and still fails to understand the importance of hiring a paper shredding company to take care of her sensitive information. The authorities have urged consumers to be very careful with their data as ID thieves are looking for the slightest chance to strike.

The hottest target for identity theft is people from 18 to 29 years, especially college students, they represent around 30 percent of identity theft complains. Dorms and apartments are college locations with abundant flux of people; also, mail and computers are available for unfriendly visitors who can simply open the enveloped in the trash can and get your credit card in your name.

Click here for full story!

According to a Federal Trade Commission article identity thieves usually get your information:

• By going through your trash, the trash of businesses, or public trash dumps.
• Steal your mail, bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new checks and tax information.
• May complete a “change address” forms to divert your mail to another location
• Steal your wallet or purse and find your home
• Abusing employee´s authorized access
• By posting as a landlord, employer or someone else who may have legal right to access your reports.
• Stealing records while they are on the job or bribing an employee who has access to these records.

There are also several advices to prevent identity theft:

• Avoid using available information like your mother´s maiden name, date of birth, age, last four digits of your SSN or your phone number.
• Ask about security procedures in your work office or at business, doctor´s office or institution that collect your personal information.
• Verify who handles the data and that it´s handled securely. Ask about disposal procedures for those records.
• Find out if the information will be shared with a third party, if so, ask how can your information remain confidential.
• Secure your personal information in your home, especially if you use outside help, have roommates, or have workers at home.

Identity theft strikes again, this time data was stolen from T.J Maxx and Marshalls. Both stores´ systems were hacked giving criminals access to client´s credit and debit cards, as well as checks and merchandise returns for customers all over the United States, Puerto Rico and could potentially involve customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland

The intrusion and the extent of this matter are yet unknown, but they are conducting a full investigation. Keep in mind that there are simple steps that you can take to prevent yourself from identity theft, such as shredding your sensitive data, checking statements, not sharing your passwords, periodically asking for reports on your cards and creating passwords other than your mother´s maiden name, date of birth and other information that is easy to guess.

For full story, click here.

11 people were indicted from stealing over 40 million credit and debit card numbers, the largest identity theft and credit card fraud scheme ever identified!

The alleged gang leader is “Segvec” Gonzalez who used to work as a confidential informant for the Secret Service. He was charged with aggravated identify theft, computer fraud, wire fraud, among others. They used different techniques, from “war driving” where they drive around with laptops looking for accessible wireless computer networks; selling the information to criminals; and encrypting blank credit cards to withdraw money from ATMs.

Approximately 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen; most of the victims were U.S. citizens that are still unaware that their identifying information has been compromised. Those who think their information could have been compromised by the ID theft scheme have been urged by Federal officials to contact their banks. Also, keep in mind that shredding all your sensitive data and documents is a good way to guard your private information and avoid identity theft.

For the full store, click here.

Security-Shred wants to be your Shred Solution for Solano County. By hard work and attention to detail, we focus on your complete shredding needs in Fairfield, Vacaville and surrounding areas. Paper shredding solutions should not be complex, confusing, or difficult in any manner. Secure mobile shredding eases this pain by bringing the shredding service to your business in Fairfield, Vacaville, Vallejo and all neighboring cities. It is imperative to know in this day and age technology can work for your and your small business. Security-Shred offers on site mobile destruction with on board cameras to see you paper waste get pulverized right in front of your eyes for piece of mind.

So remembe rif you are a small business of Fairfield or Vacaville let Security Shred destroy your obsolete documents and give you piece of mind as your shred solution.

Credit Unions around the United States are offering free shredding services for their customers. This is a new and growing trend we are seeing showing. The purpose of these free shredding programs by the credit unions solve three main things.

1. Shredding customer data for free shows that the business really does care about its customers and their privacy of information an confidentiality.
2. It promotes a way for the Credit Unions and other such companies that offer these free services, to interact with clients and get to know them better i.e. “Personal time”
3. It encourages customers to shred, gets them familiar with the shredding process, and educates the customer on the importance of shredding.

We will see more and more businesses perform free shredding events like this is the future as stated earlier, but convincing business what the Return on Investmen (ROI) is hard to prove until one of there customers becomes a victim of ID fraud or the company falls until scrutiny. It is better as a business owner to take the safe route and ensure your business is compliant with local, state, and federal law as well as be proactive and shred private information.

Think about how many times you have written down your social security number of some identifying peice of information like your phone number and either thrown it away or did not properly shred it by simply tearing the peice of paper up. Now think of how many times a business has information like that. Add Solano, Yolo, and Sacramento county businesses together and think about how much paper would need to be shred in order to secure the identities of prying eyes. These kinds of thoughts are what Security-Shred thinks about on a daily basis. Our customers in Vacaville, Fairfield, Dixon, Davis, Oakland, Vallejo, Suisun, Cordelia, etc call us us to shred their documents on site with our mobile shredding truck. But we realize that our job is not job a mobile shredding truck and customers in a partcular cuty like Vacaville, these are our neighbors, friends, and family. The information that we are shreddign is not just persoanl information either, it is their life and privacy. We are more than just being a paper shredding company or document destruction company, we are a part of the local Northern California community. So nect time you decide to choose a paper shredding company in Northern California, think Security-Shred.