Looking around your office, you notice piles of documents that you no longer need crowding everyone’s desk. Now that fall is around the corner, why not clean up the office to prepare for the busy season using a one-time purge shredding service.

One of the best tools you can use to help tidy up the office is a one-time purge shredding, as it allows you to get rid of that excess document clutter but do it safely and securely. So how do you go about scheduling a one-time purge shredding service? Does it offer any other benefits? This blog post will discuss what a one-time purge service is, how the process works, and all the benefits it brings.

What is One-Time Purge Shredding?

If you have never used a shredding service before, you might not know what a one-time purge shredding is, so let’s break it down. Businesses and residents use this type of service when they have a pile of documents that need to be destroyed; they do this as it provides protection of your information.

The difference between this type of shredding and others is that a one-time purge shredding is just like the name suggests; it’s just a one-time purging of your documents. Small businesses that may not have enough shredding to do it on a regular basis will use this type of shredding service, which they tend to use once or maybe twice a year. Larger businesses will even use this service in between their regular scheduled service if they tend to gain a lot more documents than usual. That’s the great thing about one-time purge shredding; it’s so flexible.

One-Time Purge Shredding Process

The shredding process for this service is straightforward and can be explained in 3 easy steps.

• Call your local shredding company. They will discuss and answer all your questions about your shredding needs.
• Schedule your appointment. Pick the day that works best for you, and we will come on time and ready to shred.
• Shredding day arrives. The shredding technician will be ready to go; all you need to do is show them where your documents are located, and they’ll handle the rest. Once the shredding process is complete, they will provide you with a Certificate of Destruction, proof your documents have been destroyed securely.

Shredding Benefits

When it comes to one-time purge shredding, you get more benefits than just being able to destroy your sensitive documents. It is also cost-effective and efficient as you no longer have to buy or maintain your own personal shredders. Nor do you have to spend days shredding that giant stack of documents that allows you to free up time for more important tasks. Lastly, which is one of the most incredible benefits, is that these services are eco-friendly. After every shredding service, the shredded paper bits are brought to a secure recycling facility to be used to make other paper products instead of going into landfills.

Contact A1 Datashred today for more information about our shredding services if you need a one-time purge shredding service.

Every other year, April would bring with it not only showers but the ever anticipated tax season as well. However as we enter month 4 of 2021,  the effects of the pandemic continue to be a tough time for many people. With this in mind, the IRS is doing everything possible to help taxpayers navigate these unusual circumstances. Most notably, they have extended the tax deadline from April 15th, to May 17th.

As you gather up pay stubs and receipts from this past year, it’s critical to take extra precautions with how your information is handled and who has access to it. Identity theft is increasingly on the rise and during tax season, the majority of business owners and residents are managing more personal information now than any other time during the year.

Let’s take a look at some simple but very effective ways in which you can keep your identity secure, this tax season.

Choose a Tax Preparer Carefully

Taxes can be difficult and a challenging area to deal with for many, which is why accountants are used for those who prefer professional insight. Depending on whether you are filing as an individual or on behalf of a business, can determine who you file your taxes with. That said, you should be extremely diligent in choosing your accountant and confirm some key aspects first. To start, check that the accountant has the necessary credentials, and always steer clear of an accountant who guarantees you’ll receive a significant refund. While tempting to go ahead with, the likelihood of this happening legally is slim. Promises like this can indicate they are willing to fraudulently edit numbers, which is not what you want to have on your tax record.

Ensure Your Mailbox is Locked

Yes, even while we rely so heavily on technology nowadays and hackers are obtaining information online, physical mail is still produced and circulated which leaves room for thieves to go down this avenue. In 2019, roughly 1.7 million packages went missing every day. If your mailbox isn’t secure and locked, then you may be vulnerable to theft as access is simple on a mailbox with an opening flap. If you’re unable to lock your home mail-box, consider redirecting mail to a post office box where it is entirely secured.

Create Strong and Hard to Guess Passwords

Establishing proper password protection is one of the smartest lines of defence out there. Create passwords that are strong, hard to guess, and creative in characters. Choose a combination of characters that is unique to a memory or a date that no one else would know about except you. If you share your computer with anyone else such as a coworker, it is also important not to automatically save any password details. In doing so, you may be exposing this information to another user unknowingly. It is not worth the risk.

Secure Your Computer System

Sensitive information is often stored on home computers, which means you need the proper security measures in place to protect it. Always check that your firewall, antispam, antivirus, and antimalware software is all up-to-date and working the way it should be. If you’re planning on ditching old computers, always remove the hard drives and have them professionally destroyed, first. A certified document destruction service should be able to do this for you and will recycle the remaining electronic pieces afterward.

Be Aware of Phishing Scams

If this is a new term to you, essentially phishing refers to an outside attempt at gaining your personal information through an en email or website. However, know that legitimate companies will never ask for your password or information via email, and if you actually owe money to the IRS, they’ll contact you through physical mail. They will never contact you by telephone or email demanding immediate payment. If someone does call, claiming to be from the IRS and threatening you with jail time unless you pay immediately, hang up and report the attempt.

Watch Who You Provide Information To

You are not required to provide your SSN to every business that asks for it. Prior to offering any personal details to even a company that sounds authentic, ask yourself if they genuinely need the information to carry out a specific task. If it’s not a financial institution you trust and deal with for your banking services, think again. Check if their website is secure, and if they have policies in place to keep your data secure. If there are questions or you feel uneasy, simply refuse to provide the information they are requesting. It’s ok to say no.

If Possible, File Your Taxes Early

If feasible, why not gather up your taxes early and refrain from putting them off? Remember, the earlier you submit your taxes, the less time an identity thief has to put in a fraudulent return under your name. Filing early frees up time and eliminates that unnecessary stress that often comes with waiting until a deadline arrives.

Shred All Sensitive Documents

At the end of the day, if you’re not shredding your personal and financial documents before disposing of them, you are leaving yourself extremely vulnerable. If these records are tossed in the trash or recycling bin when they are no longer needed, you lose control over them and anyone can rummage through and steal those documents. Old tax documents, copied pay stubs, or notes containing passwords, can all be attractive to thieves to use to their advantage.

Consider instead, collecting these files together in a box or bin and once full, contact a professional shredding company. In doing so you can rest assured that your documents will be destroyed beyond recovery.  Turn to one-time or regular on-going shredding services for peace of mind in knowing your files have been shredded with no potential of being stolen.

For more information on A1 DATASHRED’s secure residential shredding services, send us a message online or give us a call at 1-888-95-SHRED

With spring in the air, many residents are taking on the yearly task of spring cleaning their home or office. Hooray for nice weather and a new season, right!?  While you may primarily be focused on gardening, cleaning out your garage and tidying up your property, don’t forget to focus on all the junk that’s inevitably collected over the months.

More specifically? Consider the files and documents you may have piling up in your desk or junk drawer. With so many of us working from home this past year, there’s a good chance that file accumulation is larger than normal and it’s important that these sensitive documents don’t get tossed in the garbage.

Perhaps you’ve heard of on-site shredding services. A handy and secure method of document destruction that can be done right outside your home, through a mobile shredding truck. As the pandemic continues, it has become an increasingly popular service choice due to convenience and security, and one that we don’t see changing for quite some time.

If you’re looking for innovative and creative new ideas to stand out among your competitors while supporting the community in fighting information theft, consider a spring shredding event. But what about Covid-19 in Boston, you might be wondering? Fair concern. However the good news is that if attendee numbers are monitored, controlled and the process is done with the proper safety and precautions in place, an outdoor shred event can be done. At A1 DATASHRED, we can work with you to organize a shredding event that’s totally compliant with current state and localized restrictions.

First, let’s dive into the details and how a shredding event takes place.

What is an On-Site Shredding Event Exactly?

An on-site community shredding event is where you (or another sponsor) hosts an on-site shredding vehicle at a specific location for a period of time, during which guests or community members can shred their documents for free or for a donated fee.

The process is simple. The truck and uniformed technicians arrive at the agreed-upon location at a requested time. Once there, they collect the designated documents for shredding and deposit them into the internal shredding machine, where the papers will be cross-cut according to the latest privacy regulations. Arguably the most fun part of on-site shredding is that it occurs immediately, which allows guests to take on the role of spectators, watching in-person as their papers are securely shredded.

At the end of the event, all the shredded particles will be transported to a trusted local recycling facility, where they’ll be used to create new, recycled paper products. Your guests can return to their home or work with complete confidence that their information is safe, and they’ll also leave with a newfound appreciation for what’s involved in document security.

What’s Involved in Organizing a Spring-Cleaning Shredding Event?

The first thing you have to do is determine what the purpose of your on-site shredding event will be. If you’re just looking to give back to your community and create some positive associations with your business, make your shredding event free to attend and invite guests to bring whatever papers they have for shredding. Bearing in mind Covid-19, you’ll want to set up individual appointments with your attendees, so that numbers are minimal and all parties involved; you, a representative from A1 DATASHRED, and the guest can maintain safe distance, with masks on at all times of course.

It’s a good idea to remind them that any personally identifiable information (PII), like a name or address, should be shredded to help prevent identity theft or a data breach.

By contrast, if you want the event to benefit a local charity or act as a fundraiser, you can simply ask for a one-time donation of a certain amount. Guests can still shred whatever they need, and you’ll be able to make a monetary contribution to your community.

Aside from that initial planning phase, the rest of the event set-up is easy. Determine the place, time, and date you’d like it to occur, and ask your professional shredding provider for an on-site shredding event. And that’s it! The shredding company will handle the rest from there, which means that, even on the day of the event, all you’ll need to worry about is letting your guests know where to go and when to be there.

Fast, Secure, Convenient: On-Site Mobile Shredding

Document shredding completed at your location, isn’t just interesting to witness first-hand; it’s also 100% compliant with the latest state and federal privacy laws, which means it’s suitable for everything from junk mail to confidential medical records.

At A1 DATASHRED, we’ll work with you to help you identify the perfect shredding service for your needs and the volume of documents you have to safely destroy. All guests participating in the spring shredding event will receive a Certificate of Destruction, verifying that their documents were properly destroyed by a reputable, professional shredding company.

For more information on our shredding services and hosting a spring-clean shred event (safely), give us a call at (617) 681-4200.

One of our primary goals with the various paper shredding, and electronic disposal services is the continued support of recycling efforts. This is very important to us as reducing the impact on the environment is critical for us all. Climate change is an undeniable fact, and our environmental impact is accelerating that process. Reducing our impact will help to bring things in to balance again, and just generally make a cleaner and far more pleasant world to live in.

How We’re Lowering Environmental Impact

One of our primary methods of lowering our impact is recycling all the shredded paper material generated from a shred job. With the sheer volume of paper still being used in the world today, the impact of replacing everything one to one is huge. However, the savings of recycling even just one ton of paper goes a long way.

Recycling One Ton of Paper

Let’s look at some of the savings that can be achieved by recycling just one ton of paper. As you read the following, consider just how much savings we can achieve as we scale recycling operations.

17 mature trees: Trees are one of nature’s air filters, taking in CO2 and releasing clean oxygen. Furthermore, they provide essential habitats to many animals, and are overall an integral part of the ecosystem.

7,000 gallons of water: Water is essential for all life on this planet. There is only a limited amount of freshwater easily available.

3 cubic yards of landfill space: Landfills take up an ever increasing amount of space. The garbage has to go somewhere after all, but it requires the destruction of natural habitats to create them.

2 barrels of oil: Oil is very controversial these days, but it’s impact is clear. By lowering our need for it, we lower its impact on the environment.

4,100 kilowatt-hours of electricity: There is only so much power to go around, and much of it comes from non-renewable sources. Lowering the overall need for it lowers the non-renewables impact as a whole while we search for clean energy sources.

All of that comes from just one ton of paper. Just the one. Now start multiplying that many times over, and the benefit for the environment, and us by extension, becomes clear. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to help push forward sustainability, and we make it easy for everyone to help contribute as well.

If you’re interested in keeping your private information safe while pushing forward sustainability, give us a shout, and we’ll help you with both!

How long has there been a computer in your house? What about the workplace? How many old TVs are sitting in the basement, or the attic, collecting dust for years and years? Has your shelf of old cell phones been cleared off recently or are you still using them as questionable decor?

There’s a tendency for people to hold onto their older electronics when newer ones come in. Mostly it’s due to people wanting a backup in case the new one bites the dust suddenly, or to simply relocate the older one to another room that could use it. Otherwise the reasons can be anything, from hoarding, to simply forgetting about it. Eventually there comes a time when they have to go. When that time does come, you need to make sure you’re getting rid of them properly.

Electronic Recycling

Inappropriate Disposal

The default behavior for most would be to load up the old electronics and take them to the dump, or throw smaller ones in the trash, and in some cases to drop them in a ditch somewhere down a country road. Obviously, don’t do that last one. The landfill is not the correct place for these items to end up for some very important reasons.

Thousands of computers, cell phones, TVs, DVD players, and other electronics are suddenly rendered obsolete every day, and many feel a compulsion to have the latest devices. As many of them find their way to the landfill they take up valuable space that is better served for more appropriate trash. This causes landfills to fill up too quickly, necessitating them to be closed and new ones opened.

Furthermore, electronics contain materials that pose a hazard should they break down outside. Materials such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and other materials will break down and leak chemicals into the air, water, and soil. Naturally, they will eventually find their way into the bodies of the plant, animal, and human life in the area. In case you’re confused, ingesting these chemicals is bad for you, and the environment, but there is a solution.

E-Waste Recycling

Electronics are stuffed full of recoverable materials such as various metals, glass, and plastics. These can be salvaged and reused in new products, the more harmful material can be properly disposed of preventing any risk of contamination. By recycling these components we are able to reduce our impact on the environment by lowering the need for new resources to be extracted.

The process is rather straightforward, get in touch with an e-waste recycling provider and make some arrangements. Your e-waste can be picked up, or they may provide drop off options for collection. When it comes to computers or any kind of data storage device you need to make sure that it gets destroyed before it’s sent off to recycling. Some services will combine their recycling with hard drive destruction, in which case you should be good to go. But make sure to double check before committing as you want to avoid any risks of data theft.

Electronics need to be recycled properly and it’s not hard to do it. Let’s all do our part to protect the environment and do something properly.

There are plenty of document shredding services available these days, so many that you are bound to find something that will fit your needs rather quickly. There is a big push for using on-site service as it is the most popular for good reasons. However, there are times when you might not want services to come right to your location, so you need another option. Fortunately that option does exist: drop-off shredding is exactly what you’re looking for. But is it as easy and secure as something like on-site shredding? We think it is!

Drop-off Shredding Is Easy!

You may be wondering how simple the process truly is. We say it’s too easy! Let’s look at how exactly it all works so you can understand why that is. For those of you familiar with on-site service, you’ll know that all you have to do is securely store your documents until the shredding truck arrives. They pick up the records and then destroy them before your very eyes. This is essentially the exact same as drop-off shredding, except there’s a little more leg work on your part, which isn’t truly an obstacle if you’re already considering this option.

All you must do now is deliver the documents to be shred to one of our secure shred facilities yourself! Otherwise the process remains the same between the two services. Now that’s really not so bad is it? If traveling is truly an obstacle for you, then we have a surprise for you. We can still swing by your location to pick up documents if you so wish, and take them back to our facility for secure shredding.

Still Secure

And now the security question: is it truly as secure as watching documents get destroyed on-site? Yes, of course it is! For starters, if you do come along and drop off in person, you can still watch the shredding action happen. We’ll do it right in front of you, just like if we came to your location.

If you’re simply dropping and going, our security is still at the same high levels as it always is. We don’t put on a whole song and dance only when you are there. We are certified to adhere to the highest levels of security by the industry. And that’s a certification we are proud to have, and always work hard to keep. As always, a certificate of destruction will be awarded to you upon completion of shredding for your records.

Ready To Start?

If all that sounds good to you, and it seems like the service for you, give us a shout to let us know. We’re ready for you to drop by when you are!

There comes a point when you have to admit that your desk is in shambles. Papers jumbled across it like some madman’s idea of a jigsaw puzzle. While it may be an environment that you can work well in, it’s an environment that comes with a great deal of risk. How could that be, you might wonder from somewhere under a scattering of papers.

It simply comes down to the fact that the papers are not secure, obviously leaving them scattered around your desk is no bar to someone deciding to help themselves. Maybe you think this isn’t such a large issue, since you trust your co-workers to be honest people. Fair enough, but what about outsiders who come into the office for one reason or another? Clients, cleaning staff, and people coming for interviews could easily make off with something. We don’t like casting doubt onto people, but you need to take precautions as the damage could be immense should something happen.

Implementing The Policy

The first thing that must be done is establishing a clear understanding in all employees about which sort of documentation needs to be secured. Ensuring everyone is up to speed will make the process an easier one to accomplish. Any kind of document with information that could be used to hurt someone or a business must be considered confidential. Even the smallest scrap of information can be collected and used in the pursuit of information fraud. Names, addresses, financial information, etc, are the common examples.

Next you need to decide on how you wish to have information secured. For records that do not need to be retained and are instead destined for the shredder ASAP, secure containers are the ideal choice. They are specifically designed to hold documents and prevent them from being removed until it is time to shred. These will be provided from your document shredding company of choice.

For records needing some longer retention, you’ll need another option, as the bin doesn’t really allow you to retrieve things. Clearly the surface of your desk won’t do, so perhaps a lockable drawer would work, but those may not be the most secure option. Whatever you end up deciding on, make sure it is secure from casual inspection. A professional service can help you with all of this, so you don’t have to go it alone.

With the holidays fast approaching, there is a flurry of activity as everybody looks to make purchases for their loved ones. With the current state of affairs, specifically a global pandemic, many are turning to online shopping in order to avoid the densely packed crowds of shopping malls and other stores. Cyber criminals are also aware of this fact, and will be stepping up activity to try and take advantage during this period. In order to avoid getting a nasty surprise during the holidays, some extra vigilance is required.

Taking Care With Online Purchases

The first thing to keep in mind is avoiding shopping on any suspect websites. If you search around for a specific product, and you find it for sale online on a site you’ve never heard of before, avoid purchasing out of impulse. Take some time to try and do some research on them to see if there have been any issues reported about them. If all seems to be on the up and up, go ahead and make that purchase!

If you want a little extra protection for online purchases, consider purchasing a VPN to protect your network. A virtual private network (VPN) creates a private connection to your internet that provides privacy and anonymity. It essentially makes it so your online actions are virtually untraceable, this is especially important for wi-fi connections. If you’re ever worried about making online purchases due to someone stealing your details, a VPN can certainly help reduce the chances of anything like that happening from your end.

Keep An Eye On Receipts

With a lot of spending going on this time of year it could be easy to miss some extra purchases that you didn’t make. Keep all the receipts from your purchases during this period so you can keep a running total of your expenses. Check on your finances regularly to be sure nothing irregular has happened.

While doing this, make sure your receipts aren’t loose and neglected in a way that would allow someone to get a hold of them. Keep them in a safe place that only you have access to. Once the holiday season is over, and once you decide that you don’t need them anymore, you can get them securely destroyed. How to do that though?

The best way is seeking out a professional document shredding service which specializes in coming to your home and securely destroying paper records. By destroying them in this manner, you will be ensuring no one will be able to steal them to a nefarious purpose. Furthermore, not only will you be secure, but you will be helping sustainability as all shredded material is sent for recycling.

It’s truly a win-win situation!

Remember to take some care during the holidays so you aren’t left with a nasty new year surprise, it’s not the year for anymore of those.