Many individuals are concerned about the possibility that their identities could be stolen. The Federal Trade Commission reported that within the next year, there’s a one-in-33 chance that this could occur. Another significant concern pertains to data breaches. It is an unfortunate fact that financial, medical, and other sensitive data are illegally accessed and stolen on a regular basis.
A Brief Overview of Identity Theft
The fastest-growing crime within the United States is identity theft. It’s important to note that despite many people’s fears that this occurs predominately online, almost 90% of these cases pertain to information that is accessed from print sources.
The National Criminal Justice Reference Service stated that government documents and benefits fraud were the most common type of identity theft being reported. This amounted to 34% of the total number of identity theft cases that they encountered. As recently as 2016, approximately one out of every 16 adults were victims of this specific crime, which represented a 16% increase from the previous year.
Corporate identity theft is also a significant concern. On an annual basis, the financial costs incurred by businesses within this country amount to approximately $48 billion to $50 billion. It has been predicted that incidences of this crime will continue to rise along with the financial costs.
A Brief Overview of Data Breaches
During 2015, businesses, as well as medical and healthcare facilities, were affected by a large number of data breaches. There were 312 data breaches that occurred at various businesses and 277 that occurred at medical and healthcare facilities. The former affected 16.2 million people, while the latter affected 113 million. According to law firm BakerHostetler’s 2015 Data Security Incident Response Report, paper records were involved with one in five of the breaches their firm personally handled during 2014.
Learn More About Document Shredding Services
When your business enterprise or organization needs to have secure document destruction, it’s important to utilize the services of professional shredding companies. Since it’s likely that you purge documents on a regular basis, it’s a good practice to schedule ongoing shredding services to accommodate your needs. Professional shredding companies can provide you with a more convenient and secure option than attempting to shred and dispose of sensitive documents in-house.
