'Your Office Needs a Fireproof Safe and a Paper Shredder'

Your Office Needs a Fireproof Safe and a Paper Shredder

By Brian K White at 01/26/2007 11:11

Your Office Needs a Fireproof Safe and a Paper Shredder

Whether you run a high profile accounting firm or a coffee stand on-the-grow, you have a variety of highly sensitive documents around at any given time. Some of these need to be kept safe, such as in a device conveniently named "a safe", or disposed of in a prompt, secure manner, such as by use of a paper shredder.

Even if you think ou have a well secured storage room or office for sensitive documents, a quick foot to the door may prove otherwise. Further, you may have a number of low-level employees who have unlimited access to this space. Some things are too sensitive to just keep laying around.

You may not think your documents are sensitive, but I assure you they are.

• Client credit card numbers along with verification codes, shipping addresses and often times even bank references complete with account numbers.
  
• Client names, addresses and buying patterns may seem innocuous enough, but if you have an employee who wants to go out and start a competing business, this information is the summary of exactly how you do business. More likely though, is that an opportunistic employee would sell this information to one of your competitors.
  
• Your own personal information, of which there is certainly plenty in your place of business, could be used to cause you many years of frustration, cost and difficulty, in the wrong hands.
  

And all this is to say nothing of the value of having cash, waiting bank deposits or the actual, physical keys to the castle unsecured. If you noticed a spare key missing, you would be hard pressed to even guess when it was that the theft occurred, or even IF the theft occurred.

The problem may come from your own employees, but it may also come from a burglary. When the day comes that your business is robbed, which is a near certain statistical probability, you'll be able to say with a sigh relief that, "At least they didn't get in to the safe."

No one has to tell you that you need a safe, but what you really need is a fire safe. A locked desk or file cabinet provides minimal security, though some, but a cheap safe will not protect you from losses due to fire. Fire is very real, of course, and though uncommon, if a fire sweeps through your office, the odds will mean nothing to you, and the loss of all that data may put you out of business, or at least put you back five years.

A good fire safe will have a rating of 1300 degrees for a minimum of 30 minutes, which is plenty. Unless you're selling rocket fuel, no fire will run that hot, nor for that long, and your contents will remain under 350 degrees. Paper burns at 451, so you'll still have plenty of headroom, should the fire greatly exceed the realm of normalcy.

You can't possibly buy a safe big enough to secure everything sensitive, but that's okay because a lot of your paperwork doesn't need to be saved, but rather disposed of properly. You can hire a shredding company to come out to your location, but those are costly and all paperwork will remain unsecured until the truck comes each month or longer.

High quality paper shredders are available at very reasonable prices, and there's no degree of hindsight that will keep your business alive if it is learned that sensitive data was exposed through your company.

You run an honest business, so as you continue your success, bear in mind your responsibility to your clients, your employees and yourself. These are minimal expenses that can insure you never fall victim of a small, perhaps unforeseen incident that could put you out of business and damage your personal and professional reputation alike.

By Brian K. White