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If you handle confidential waste disposal for your business, you’ll know how important it is to secure it throughout its journey from your workplace to the shredding blade, and beyond. A documented chain of custody is the key to this security, as we explain below.
What is off-site shredding?
In its bare essentials, off-site shredding is a service where your business’ confidential information, across mixed formats, is transported away from your workplace to a dedicated destruction facility where it is reduced to small fragments in industrial shredding machines.
It’s a little more complex than that, however, since security should be the watchword of any shredding service.
The point of disposing of paper and digital information by reducing it to unreadable fragments is to prevent said data from being re-used by bad actors, aka ‘thieves’, to exploit or extort your customers, colleagues or business. Off-site shredding needs to be carried out in compliance with the data and environmental protections that are current – GDPR UK, and the WEEE Directive – being ever mindful, over and above the damage and disruption caused by data loss, of the financial and reputational penalties for any breaches in the handling.
What is the chain of custody process for off-site shredding?
Whether for paper documents, digital data, or mixed confidential waste, the chain of custody is established as soon as you contact a service provider like Restore Datashred.
When you speak to us, your requirements shape the correct type and size of waste container, the collections schedule that works for you, and the level of security needed for compliance, eg, witnessed on-site in a mobile shredding vehicle for highly sensitive data, or transported off-site for higher volumes and more general types of confidential waste. The aim of any process is to eliminate the gaps for risk.
There are several steps in the chain of custody process, as follows:
Secure storage at your workplace in lockable containers, cabinets or bins, or in sealed, barcoded sacks
Secure collection at the agreed time and place, by professional, security-vetted operatives
Scanning and logging to establish the e-audit trail
Signed collection note to prove pick up
Secure transit in alarm-protected, GPS-tracked specialist vehicles
CCTV-monitored destruction facility and sealed handling by trained vetted teams
Swift processing on to the shredding blades
Transparent e-audit trail, including a waste transfer note and a certificate of destruction
Why is chain of custody important in off-site shredding?
Choose a service provider with a poor record for compliance with data and environmental protection legislation and a gappy chain of custody and they could destroy more than your sensitive data.
When you send confidential waste such as paper documents, discs, and USB sticks, out of your workplace jurisdiction, you entrust your customers’, colleagues’ and your business’ sensitive information and, ultimately, your company’s reputation and financial health, to a third party. The chain of custody is important because it should form the backbone from which you build your security arrangements for responsible information management and disposal.
What happens if the chain of custody is broken?
The chain of custody starts with you and the way you handle obsolete confidential waste. It’s easy to imagine scenarios where data has been overlooked, carelessly stored or wilfully thrown into the recycling stream, with not enough thought given to the consequences.
Information is a potential goldmine to thieves who will exploit carelessness or genuine mistake alike, using any opportunity to prise open the chink in your company’s data defences. What can happen if the breach is leveraged or discovered can be anything ranging from systemic disruption to public shaming and attendant damage to your business’ reputation, to customer attrition, and fines. The ICO can hand down punitive financial penalties representing up to 4% of your business’ global annual turnover.
A business providing off-site shredding services should have all the necessary accreditations, equipment, training and processes in place to form an unbreakable chain of custody from the moment your confidential waste is signed over to them, to the moment the documents and media fall on to the shredding blade.
How can I secure the chain of custody for my confidential data?
The simplest way to secure, and be able to trust, a chain of custody for your confidential data is to use a professional, accredited, experienced data handling and disposal business, who have all the correct systems and processes in place to give you an ironclad guarantee of compliance with data protection legislation.
Seek accreditations and memberships connected with protective measures, such as:
ISO 9001
for service quality and encompassing BS EN15713 European Shredding Standard, and BS 7858 Staff Security Vetting Standard
ISO 27001
for information management and data protection
Cyber Essentials Plus
British Security Industry Association
United Kingdom Secure Shredding Association
National Protective Security Authority
In addition, environmental protection compliance in relation to confidential waste and aligned with the WEEE Directive, benefits from chain of custody processes because each materials stream, whether paper, plastics, metals or other materials from digital media, is so closely controlled. This means all materials shredded are appropriately segregated for a high recycling uptake, treating ‘waste’ as a resource, not rubbish. ISO 14001 is one of the high standards to insist on here.
Why is the chain of custody so important to off-site shredding?
GDPR legislation operates fines and penalties that can be applied where proper chain of custody can’t be demonstrated
Reputational damage from a breach of GDPR could result in customer attrition and loss of business
Sensitive data ending up in the wrong hands is serious for any organisation
Bin raiding is a form of theft that is on the rise, involving criminals ransacking bins for sensitive data and material that can be used to exploit businesses and individuals.
Correct chain of custody management prevents this exposure.
Restore Datashred’s track record for unbroken chain of custody, and for recycling percentages, is second to none
You can trust us to handle your mixed confidential waste with the care it requires and that you and your customers and colleagues deserve. Call one of our customer support team on 0800 376 4422 or complete our online customer support form
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