Document Destruction

In recent years regulators have imposed more stringent duties on companies regarding proper management of personal data and records. Companies must take steps to prevent the ad hoc disposal of records and ensure that final disposal of records is in accordance with agreed policies.
 
The methods of final disposal vary:

Destruction of physical, paper records may require cross-cut shredding and/or burning in a secure environment. The following methods are recommended as minimum requirements by The National Archives:

Non-sensitive (unclassified)
Ordinary rubbish bins should only be used for clearly ‘public domain’ material. Although
FOIA will greatly increase the extent of releasable information; much will still contain personal data. Records may consequently require tearing into small pieces and placed in rubbish bins/sacks for removal by an approved disposal firm.

Restricted
Waste should be strip-shredded and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm.

Confidential
Waste should be crosscut-shredded and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm. The material should be pulped or burnt.

Secret and top secret
Waste should be crosscut-shredded or disintegrated using a grille size no larger than 6mm and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm. The material should be burnt.

Destruction is also particularly important in the electronic environment where there might be uncontrolled copying of information. Deletion of electronic data should ultimately mean the complete destruction of the electronic record (and is the electronic equivalent of secure disposal of physical records). This means rendering them non-recoverable even using forensic data recovery techniques.

At Cube RMS we offer a secure and confidential record shredding and destruction service. To find out more please get in contact today.