The Art of Shredding

To shred or not to shred, that is the question. Some people will say you are paranoid if you shred everything others will say you are wise. I guess there are just different levels of comfort for different people. Then there is what do you "shred" paper, hard drives, credit cards the list goes on. So here are some of my thoughts on shredding;

What content should be shredded:
Anything that has your name on it
Anything that has your name and address on it
Any bank, credit card or financial statement
Anything that if read can be linked directly back to you
Anything with a picture of you on it (yes that includes photos!)
Anything that has an account number on it

What items should you "shred":
Anything that has personal information on a chip (credit card, ID card)
Anything that has your personal information on a mag stripe (credit card, ID card, event swipe card)
Anything that has your photo on it
Anything that has personal information on a drive of any kind (that includes a smart phone, computer hard drive or flash drive)


Now I can hear you cringing already, but the fact is if you don't want people to have your information you need to shred everything.

Personally and professionally I never throw a hard drive out or send off a computer, copier or device without removing the hard drive. Not only do I remove the hard drive, but I also write over the entire drive three times completely with useless information and then I store the hard drive in a secure location forever! You may call me paranoid, but I do not want my information or the information I am trusted with professionally to ever get in to the wrong hands, and the only way to guarantee that is to shred it physically and in the case of electronics make the data hard to recover and keep hold of the drive. Do I have a lot of hard drives in storage, probably about 40, but I know the information is safe on my watch. Yes at my work we do occasionally sell or give away computers that are no longer of use but I buy a new hard drive and install it, the cost of doing so far out weighs the risk of lost information...


In case you wonder why I mentioned copiers, here is something to consider:
Ever photocopied personal information? A must watch