Certificates of destruction are part of the document and hard drive shredding process. Securely shredding documents, media, and hard drives after their retention period has been reached is vital to the protection of information at the end of its life cycle. Protecting the personal information of your clients, vendors, and employees is not only the responsible thing to do but is also required by state and federal laws governing the destruction of information once it is no longer needed. Working with a secure shredding partner will eliminate those documents that are no longer necessary, and after each time service is performed, you should be expecting a certificate of destruction to verify that secure destruction took place.
Let’s examine what a certificate of destruction is and why it is necessary:
What is it?
Simply put, a certificate of destruction is a document that outlines the details of the destruction service that took place. It will contain pertinent info of the shredding service including:
- Account details (name of business, address, etc.)
- Work order number
- Type of service (document shredding, hard drive shredding, etc.)
- Date and time of service
- Quantity destroyed (# of boxes, # of hard drives, etc.)
- Signature of authorized representative
- Location of service
Why is this information important to have?
All this information is vital to have documented on a certificate of destruction in order to verify all information scheduled for destruction was in fact destroyed securely and in compliance with state and federal regulations. Breaches happen. You want your business to be protected in case legal disputes arise pertaining to the management of personal information your company holds. With a certificate of destruction in place after each and every shred service, you will have an established mechanism that proves your process for destruction. And should an audit occur, you are covered.
Peace of Mind
Knowing that a certificate of destruction is a guarantee that all data collected by your shredding partner has been completely destroyed provides peace of mind to you and your customers. When it comes to the destruction of information, you don’t want to have to worry whether information has been securely shredded and receiving a certificate relieves that headache.
Providing certificates of destruction after shredding service is part of Williams Data Management’s goal to help its clients maintain compliance and securely protect information at all stages. They are provided for paper, hard drive, and storage media shredding. Contact us to learn more about shredding service and how certificates of destruction play an integral part to the process.