It’s the holy grail of office management. Every business coordinator wants to know how their workplace can be made better. Maybe the problem is a confusing system of communication. Maybe it’s a catch-all filing cabinet that should have been retired in the early 90s. Maybe it’s stacks and stacks of paper, stuck on the corner desk because they have nowhere else to go.

Whatever the hiccup to an otherwise efficient workflow, there are three simple rules that can help correct the issue and get things back on track.

Getting Over the Mental Hurdle

Putting off an office restructure is easy. After all, it only causes issues occasionally, right? It’s inconvenient, but everyone can still get their work done. Why lose a day to fix something so small?

The important thing to acknowledge is that establishing a new system or standard of operation takes time. There’s no way around that one. However, it can help to think of it as an investment rather than a chore. By taking the initiative to figure out how things can run more smoothly, daily operations will take less time. Records will rarely be lost or misplaced, and when everyone in the office understands the system for filing, it will be easy for any employee to retrieve what they need to complete a task.

Perhaps it will take a good, full day of work. You can rest assured that day will be made back, several times over, through the regained minutes and increased ease of the new routine. Change is challenging, but it’s almost always worthwhile.

Rule 1: Start with a One-time Purge

Your workplace can’t run efficiently if everyone’s always stepping over “the pile of old stuff that we’ll sort out eventually.” A system restructure needs to begin with a one-time purge.

Are there any:

• Old records?
• Office clutter?
• Discontinued/damaged merchandise?
• Documents that should be scanned and discarded?

Determine which pieces of information are important to keep and which ones should be safely disposed. If information is still relevant, but really should be in the computer system instead of stuffed into a manila folder, take the time to scan or enter it in and then get rid of the physical papers.

Cleaning up employee desks and shared areas is a worthwhile task, too. Studies have shown that a cluttered work area can lead individuals to feel more stressed and anxious than they ordinarily would. This sense of being overwhelmed can contribute to mental fatigue and to increased rates of procrastination. Clutter also casts a negative impression on whoever might be visiting the office that day, suggesting that the owner of said desk might be careless and difficult to get along with.

Rule 2: Make a Plan

The office is clean and tidy, but now what? The next essential step is to decide how to keep it neat.

• Where should things go? – Stop clutter from building up again right from the get-go. Determine what should be filed and where, and stick to it. No more “I’ll scan it later,” no more “it’ll all get filed at the end of the week.” Be clear about the established protocol for storing information and items. If a system is confusing, rework it.
• How should items be identified and retrieved? – The best filing system is one that is self-explanatory. If a client’s information from last year is dumped under a catch-all year folder, and not the client’s name, will a new hire know where to find it? If the information is sensitive in nature, is there password protection in place to keep a log of who accesses it? Separate the day-to-day information from the stuff that will require more security, and make sure that it’s clearly labeled as such.
• Can the system evolve as time goes on? – Sure, these are all the clients and business divisions you have now, but what if the company expands, or you accept a larger client base? A good filing system will grow with the business.

Rule 3: Who Does What?

With a new, straightforward plan in place for how things should be kept, it’s now time to determine who will take the specific steps to put things in place. Can any employee log a customer’s personal information, or should that task be designated to the manager? Do all employees have the training they need for the information they’ll be handling? Should each employee scan and log papers as they come in, or should that data be sent to one person for processing? The choices are entirely at the discretion of each business.

The key thing to remember is that whatever system you choose should be one that is clearly laid out and closely followed by all employees.

How to Get Started

Now that you’re familiar with the basic process of creating a clean, productive work environment, you might be itching to get started. For a secure one-time purge of old records and/or office hardware, consider booking a shredding service, like the professionals at A1 DATASHRED. Office information, such as sensitive client information or confidential business records, needs to be safely and securely destroyed. A document shredding service will guarantee that documents are rendered completely irretrievable, and that the remaining particles will be responsibly recycled. If there are old hard drives or SD cards kicking around, you may want to request media destruction instead.

If you’d like more information on how to conduct a one-time purge through shredding,

contact us today at (978) 858-0200, or request a free quote online

It’s a process we all find ourselves doing at least once every few months; taking time to clear out the old to make room for the new. This might be the case at work in your office environment or even at home when you notice that clutter is becoming a problem and you seem to be dealing with more mess than ever. In the event this inevitable time arrives, it’s the best time to sort through old belongings and either toss or donate what you no longer need.

If you’ve been holding onto old cell phones, laptops, or hard drives, you’re not alone. We as a society are constantly upgrading devices in an effort to obtain the latest and greatest on the market; sure this is not a bad thing, but what could be considered bad is the way in which you are dealing with the old, no longer relevant electronics you’ve been storing up until now. Unfortunately, many individuals will simply toss these devices in the recycling or garbage bin, rather than taking them to an electronics recycling company or destruction company. What does this mean? These items will consequently make their way to your local landfill, polluting our environment and potentially harming our wildlife as well.

Not only does this leave our environment at substantial risk when this this takes place, it also leaves your confidential data vulnerable to exposure if stolen; that’s because unless you have your hard drives and other electronic media destroyed by a professional, software used by hackers can be used to recover that data you thought you successfully “erased”. The best way to alleviate both risks is through hiring a professional electronic destruction service.

Environmental Threats

You’re likely familiar with the fact that electronics can pose danger to the environment, but do you know just why they have such a negative impact?  The many components of electronic devices are made with a substantial amount of hazardous materials. Heavy metals and airborne dioxins will eventually enter our water supplies, roadside dust, and the general air when electronics are disposed of in our landfill and left to decay. These harmful toxins hurt our environment and worse, if or when ingested through water and air, their effects on humans are carcinogenic.

Standard hazardous components found in most electronics include:

• Lead
• Mercury
• Beryllium Oxide
• Cadmium
• Brominated Flame Retardants

Review this interesting report for a more in depth breakdown.

Data Breach Risks

Information theft is an ever-growing crime, and often it’s carried out with no warning or signs until the damage has already been done. This is a large drawback of carelessly disposing of electronics improperly and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

As mentioned, many are under the belief that deleting data is enough to wipe all documented information; unfortunately, this idea is very much untrue.  Data recovery software and methods are more than capable of retrieving information from electronics.

Due to the nature in which data is created and stored on a hard drive, deleting a file or program doesn’t truly remove it from the system. When you save a file, space is allocated in the hard drive and a directory is created at that time to its location. Deleting a file simply eliminates the directory listing and lists the space as available for something else to be saved over it. In this way old data will eventually be replaced with something new, but there are no guarantees that it’ll be unrecoverable. As you can see, just because you’ve hit delete, you aren’t really safe from all the risks of data theft.

The Safest Solution for Your Electronic Data

The best approach to ensure your data can’t be recovered, while also ensuring the environment is safe, is physically destroying your electronic devices. Partnering with a company, like A1 DATASHRED, that provides reliable hard drive destruction services is your best bet.

Media destruction services provided by our professionals will take your old electronic media and destroy them in minutes on-site, at your location. Our industrial shred equipment is built to shred through paper and all your electronic devices. Once the process is completed, the particles are sent to be recycled, the raw material is then removed and reused in new products. This not only keeps electronics away from our landfills but also ensures your sensitive data is never exposed!

A1 DATASHRED is a document destruction provider also offering media destruction services, for a more convenient and practical service approach.  We are proud to keep residents and businesses in Boston protected from information theft, while doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint.

If you are looking for safe media disposal solutions, contact us today. We are more than happy to assist you!

Contact us today at 1-888-95-SHRED

It’s not unheard of for small business owners to skip out on certain security measures, simply because they believe their size translates to not having a need for them; unfortunately the opposite is the case and in reality, it is these small companies who are commonly targeted by cyber crime and information theft.

With that said however, it shouldn’t be the only reason you establish a secure work environment; data breach can add up very quickly and sadly it continues to target a variety of companies, both big and small. Not only can the consequences be devastating from a financial standpoint, but it can also hurt your reputation. Small start-up companies are usually more vulnerable to fraud and information theft because they are typically still establishing their business and customer base.

What security practices should be implemented to protect your Boston business?

• Get Familiar with Your Legal Obligations
  Be sure you are familiarized on the state and federal privacy laws that are applicable to your specific industry. Remember that ensuring information stays protected always is a legal responsibility you have as a business owner.
• Design a Security Policy and Put it in Writing
  Create an informative and detailed document that clearly specifies why securely managing and disposing of business documents is so necessary in your workplace. Remember to go over unique outlines for your mobile workforce as well.
• Implement Document Management Processes
  It’s in your best interest to collect information that is applicable and helpful to your business, only. Not only that, to ensure total 100% security, you’ll want to be sure that access is limited and granted to those trusted and entitled to view that information. Make sure you have a reliable information backup plan as well, should there be an unexpected disaster or fire; you don’t want to risk losing valuable information. Be sure you have an organized list of inventories that’s for any records deemed confidential. Files should be labelled according to their appropriate shredding date; this is helpful for both electronic and hard copy records.
• Remember IT Protection
  We highly suggest that you implement the most cutting edge and up-to-date technological safeguards, to stop as well as identify, any suspicious viruses or malware.

• Train Your Employees Accordingly
  Regular training for your employees is crucial in relation to any updates to your privacy policy or document management processes. Security procedures are imperative to keep your company safe, but they are only effective if they are being executed properly and everyone is on the same page.

• Carry Out Risk Assessments
  Design a Security Risk Assessment Schedule to sort out whether there are security gaps in your business and which areas need further improvement and attention.

Professional Document Shredding
Hire a reliable and trusted shredding company to handle the secure disposal of your sensitive records.  A1 DATASHRED offers a plenty of document shredding solutions that meet your budget and unique needs.

In 1996 the US government passed the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act; also referred to as HIPAA. The act was modified largely to modernize the movement of healthcare-related data, while protecting personal information from fraud and theft. Essentially HIPAA covers how and when patient data should be handled and managed.

HIPAA applies to nearly all facilities and businesses operating in the health sector; from hospitals and medical practices to other healthcare businesses that look after personal and patient information; other words known as protected health information – PHI.

The act provides specific guidelines for affected organizations on how long certain information needs to be held onto for, how it should be destroyed, and what information should be held onto and / or destroyed.

What Does PHI Consist of?

Protected health information can refer to documents that contain the following personal details:

• Names
• Dates
• Social Security Numbers
• Beneficiary Numbers
• Phone Numbers
• Email Addresses
• Medical Record Numbers
• Vehicle Identifiers & Serial Numbers
• Web URL’s
• Full face photos and / or biometric identifiers

The Department of Health and Human Services states that a properly destroyed piece of PHI should be left 100% unreadable, indecipherable and non-recoverable.

When Does PHI Require Shredding?

The length in which PHI must be securely stored changes according to state; however, state laws and HIPAA both include regulations for the duration in which medical records require keeping. In certain situations, state laws have obligatory retention periods that are shorter or longer than those in HIPAA (6 years);

• When they are shorter; HIPAA regulations replace state laws.
• When they are longer; State regulations replace HIPAA retention regulations.

Always Confirm Your Shredding Provider is HIPAA Compliant

A1 DATASHRED offers reliable shredding services that guarantee healthcare clients are within regulation of HIPAA destruction guidelines. We provide a selection of different shredding options that make shredding convenient and easy. When you partner with our team we will work with you to determine a schedule that is fitting for your requirements; this means no need to worry about when documents should be shred; we’ll arrive at the predetermined time and date and look after everything so you can continue focusing on your patients.

A1 DATASHRED offers services both on and off-site, making it easy for healthcare organizations to get the services they need to protect their patients. From scheduled services to off-site purges, we can do it all regardless of the job size. Don’t need documents destroyed? No problem: we offer record storage services to help clients fulfill their storage needs with state of the art archiving technology and building security.

Get in touch with us today to learn about our document shredding services and how they can assist you in protecting confidential, patient data from exposure. Keep your business compliant and protect your patient’s sensitive information at the same time.

Call 1-888-95-SHRED

As a business owner presumably, you are familiarized with cyber security and what it entails, at least to a certain extent. However, it can also cause some confusion at times so below we will cover some standard facts and knowledge surrounding the topic, ensuring you have all the information needed to properly protect your business from common cyber threats and hacking mechanisms being practiced today.

To start, you might wonder exactly what cyber security covers? To keep things relatively brief, cyber security refers to maintaining safety and security over your electronic devices in hopes to prevent attacks from happening.  Such devices might include computers and smartphones, as well as networks and software programs from being attacked electronically. With each of these attacks comes the desire to alter, access or destroy certain forms of data; which is almost always confidential in nature. With some attacks, the mission in place is to gain money and nothing else; this can target individuals while they are on scrolling on their phone or personal device, which can lead to some serious issues for companies as many depend on cell phones, laptops, and computer-based processes to function day-to-day.

A Human Element

Cyber security needs multiple components to effectively work. While maintaining security software and network hardware is smart and highly encouraged, a cyber security protocol also depends on smart usage and behavior from users operating the devices. What does this include? To start, you’ll want to confirm that every password you’re coming up with is strong and difficult to guess. You’ll also want to refrain from using websites that raise red flags or appear suspicious, because they are likely lacking security. Always do your research and verify that the website you’re visiting is credible and trustworthy before supplying any personal details about yourself or company.

Email is another area where user discretion is highly suggested. It is quite common for networks and devices to experience infection as a result of malicious software. This can occur by simply opening an email/attachment. It can happen so quickly without any warning signs. Take a good look at the sender and their email address to verify whether it’s recognizable or legitimate and stay away from opening anything that appears untrustworthy.  To learn more about how to identify suspicious emails, and to test your ability, take a look at Cisco’s phishing quiz.

Types of Cyber Attack

Hackers have very strategic approaches in place to obtain your confidential data. A trustworthy and strong cyber security protocol will work to shield against most of them. While there are many different mechanisms out there, here is a brief summary of the most commonly used;

• Phishing – You’ve likely received an email in the past that appeared to be coming from a secure source but in the end was not; this is exactly what phishing is about. An email that comes from malicious senders posing as trustworthy senders with the intent of fooling the user into offering up sensitive information such as credit card or banking information.
• Malware – Malware is software that is programmed to recover information on your device without permission. There are many forms of malware that all function uniquely from one another.
• Ransomware – This is a more serious form of cyber-attack. Ransomware basically blocks access to information on a computer system or network and presents the user with a screen requesting payment for the release of this protected data.

Cyber security is more critical than ever before. Why? As many companies convert to electronic data storage, operating electronically as a whole, more and more information is being shared and stored this way. Without the proper security measures in place, this can invite in potential trouble; hackers gaining confidential details that should be kept private. Ensuring you are protected from such threats should be a top priority. When you make the decision to maintain a strong cyber security protocol and establish relationships with partners you can depend on to keep your information secure, you are taking the proper actions towards cyber security.

If your business is in need of a partner to protect your data including your old hard drives, A1 DATASHRED will safely destroy your hard drives so data is no longer recoverable. Remember that data security goes beyond document shredding.

Stay safe online and practice the necessary security and software to ensure you are protected from hackers. What about those old hard drives you have tucked away in your storage room? We’ll safely destroy them, so you don’t have to worry about the status of your security or privacy. Taking these steps is vital in remaining protected from possible threats!

Learn about our document shredding and hard drive destruction services today.

City of Boston is hosting a FREE Paper Shredding for the residents of West Roxbury, MA on Saturday, June 29, 2019, 9am-2pm. An ID with a Boston address is required. A1 DATASHRED will shred up to 10 copy paper size boxes or containers of your personal documents. Bring your old tax returns, bank/credit card statements, ATM receipts, used airline tickets and/or medical bills. Shred your personal information to protect your identity.

For more information, please visit: https://www.boston.gov/calendar/household-hazardous-waste-dropoff-06-29-19

The City of Boston is hosting a FREE Paper Shredding for the residents of East Boston, MA on Saturday, June 29, 2019, 9am-2pm.  An ID with a Boston address is required.  A1 Datashred will shred up to 10 copy paper size boxes or containers of your personal documents.  Bring your old medical bills, ATM receipts, tax returns, bank/credit card statements, used airline tickets and/or old utility bills.  Shred your personal information to protect your identity.

For more information, please visit: https://www.boston.gov/calendar/household-hazardous-waste-dropoff-06-29-19

It is important for every organization to have a proper records retention policy in place that outlines the retention and destruction period for those records that contain sensitive material. Storing documents away forever or hanging onto files that don’t necessarily require storage, can lead to unnecessary stress, mess, and other organizational issues that can easily be avoided.

Why is this the Case?

To start, if a company faces a legal issue, rummaging through endless piles of documents to locate a certain document when there is a time restriction, is not overly productive, and can quickly lead to frustration since it’s not always a quick and simple task to get done. Furthermore, the fees associated with in-house document storage and maintaining unnecessary files is an expense that simply isn’t worth it. It could actually result in costing you more money down the road not to mention headache and stress. Remember; if a break-in, natural disaster or theft were to occur, your information would be quickly vulnerable to exposure and/or harm.

Saving documents beyond a necessary time frame can also contribute to certain risks just as much as failing to store records for the indicated time frame can; this is exactly why you should have this information ahead of time so you know what you’re working with and what should be stored and shred. Of course, some files require storage for a set duration by law; such as those related to taxes and employees. Depending on your job role and industry, you might also face unique regulations relating to records retention. It’s vital to also be made aware that if your business is ever involved in a legal case, you are responsible by law to safely store records that may be of use to the specific problem at hand.

What Does a Record Retention Policy Involve?

To implement an effective and secure records retention policy, it is in your best interest to categorize all business documents into 3 separate sections:

The “Must Store” Records

These files refer to ones you are legally mandated to store, and it also includes documents requiring storage that apply specifically to your line of business. You should also be sure to include records that relate directly to a possible legal dispute. For security and compliance purposes, these should be stored for the length of time required by law or regulation, or until they are no longer applicable to the legal matter.

The “Want to Store” Records

Anything that you feel is valuable to your business or staff such as administrative or marketing documentation, falls under this category. These documents do not need to be stored because of legal obligations, but rather out of a convenience and general desire to keep them. Your records retention policy should preferably provide the time period for which these documents should be retained, or at least periodically review to determine relevance and whether they continue to be valuable to your business.

The “Securely Shred” Records

The last group entails anything not previously mentioned above. It is important that you are proactive in securely shredding any hard copy documents and electronic files that have reached the end of their lifecycle or are not being used for any business purpose; storing these can pose red flags for your security, as information can easily be lost or stolen, which leaves you responsible should there be a fraudulent crime that occurs as a result.

A-1 Shredding offers document shredding services and electronic media destruction that will help your business remain in compliance with critical privacy legislation, while you remain protected from the threats of information theft and fraud. Our team of specialists are pleased to work with you in developing your records retention policy if you don’t currently have one.