The holidays can be a hectic time in any workplace. Not only are there a number of days everyone takes off, but many people take vacation and all the while you’re wrapping up the year’s paperwork and preparing for a new fiscal year to start.
So it’s no wonder issues tend to develop this time of year with data security and potential breaches. It’s a prime time for dumpster divers and data thieves to take action. We work with businesses throughout the region this time of year to ensure security remains a top priority, even as the hectic schedule of December and early January makes it that much harder.
Establishing Revised Chains of Custody
On any given day, you can probably pinpoint who in the office will have access to data or documents. The chain of custody for that information is probably carefully managed to ensure security is strong. But when multiple people are on vacation, when temporary workers are more common in the office, and when holiday parties, gift exchanges, and end of year tasks are being performed, that chain of custody can be interrupted.
To ensure this does not happen, review your current practices and ensure you have a system in place to handle any potential disruptions. Whether that means having a document destruction company visit more frequently in the weeks before the holiday break or moving the location of your secure bins or any sensitive media storage systems, actions may need to be taken.
For When You Are On Vacation
If certain tasks or documents are your responsibility during the holidays and you are taking vacation time yourself, then it can be harder to oversee any such changes. Making them in advance can certainly help, but also having someone you trust to take over any document management and destruction oversight duties while you are away is equally important.
Your business ideally has strong security systems in place. Ensure there are redundancies for when administrators or managers are not on site to manage those systems. No system should rely on only one person to run smoothly.
End of Year Office Clean out or Purging
The end of the year is a slow time for many companies, making it an ideal time to consider an end-of-the-year clean out. While there are certainly monthly or quarterly tasks you normally perform, there are also larger purges that tend to get put off indefinitely due to a lack of time. With a limited workload and plenty of time to tackle such a project, now is a good time to start organizing and discuss with a document destruction company a clean out for your office.
This means having a document destruction company like Strongbox on call. We can visit your office any time throughout the next 3-4 weeks and ensure that sensitive data, whether standard media or end of the year purge, is handled quickly and professionally. We work with your revised holiday schedule and can help you ensure your systems remain as effective this month as they are the rest of the year.
Call Strongbox today and ask to learn more about holiday data and document security and what we can do for you both before the holidays and in the New Year.