News

An Unannounced Shredding Audit

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:07:00 GMT

Last week we arrived at a new customer, a firm of chartered accountants, in Bracknell and started to load material for shredding into our wheelie bins. When we moved the wheelie bins to the nearby shredding truck, there was a smartly dressed man with a clipboard standing by the truck - a NAID auditor had arrived to carry out an unannounced audit of our shredding service.

The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) is the international trade association for shredding companies. For over 20 years it has built a high reputation for ethics and standards for members. When I formed Allshred in 2005, we joined NAID and we used the NAID guidelines of good practice when we developed our policies and procedures.

In 2008, Allshred was the first English secure shredding company to apply for NAID AAA Certification. As part of this, a rigorous audit was carried out by an independent security specialist who checks all aspects of personnel, operations and administration. Allshred passed the initial audit and became NAID AAA Certified for mobile shredding operations in November 2008.

Since 2007, NAID has conducted a regime of unannounced audits of all NAID AAA certified companies in addition to the annual scheduled audit. This was done to consolidate the reputation of NAID AAA Certification and continuing compliance to the strict criteria set down.

Allshred has been subject to four unannounced audits in just over 3 years and have been 100% compliant on each occasion. Our customer, the chartered accountant, talked to the auditor and came away impressed at the steps taken to monitor compliance. He said ‘There are lessons here for other regulators and compliance authorities’.

The value of the audit for Allshred is to encourage us to maintain the highest standards and give confidence to our customers. For potential customers, independent assessment to strict criteria provides confidence that Allshred is a trustworthy supplier and that all data is being securely shredded.

Secure Destruction of Police and Criminal Evidence Tapes

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:11:00 GMT

Recently Allshred received a request to quote from Oxford City Council for the secure destruction of 1200 audio tapes that had been used to record material in criminal investigations. These are referred to as PACE tapes. As well as the information held on the magnetic tape, there is personal information on both the cassette and the carry-box. All this information must be destroyed securely so that it cannot be retrieved.

The quotation process required in-depth statements of our process for secure destruction of magnetic media and the method for disposal of the shredded fragments. Details of financial standing, environmental standards and liability insurance were also supplied as part of a thorough evaluation of potential suppliers by the City Council.

Allshred was selected to carry out the work and the date for the secure shredding visit to Oxford city centre arranged for the following Monday. The fast response was essential to ensure that the tapes were destroyed before a major office move occurred.

The Allshred mobile shredding truck reversed into one of the narrow streets in the heart of Oxford at the agreed time and the twelve boxes of PACE tapes were loaded onto the truck and weighed. Under the watchful eyes of staff from the City Council the boxes were emptied into the hopper of the shredder and within ten minutes, everything was reduced to fragments stored in the secure section of the truck. The Council staff then countersigned the Certificate of Destruction. Her subsequent e-mail comment was ‘It was a very quick and efficient procedure’.

For Allshred, the job was only part finished. At the Dix Pit Waste and Recycling centre at Stanton Harcourt, the securely shredded fragments were unloaded into a skip that would be buried in the landfill section the next day. This completed the job for Allshred.

Audio tapes, video tapes, floppy discs and CDs can all hold large quantities of personal and confidential data. They are made of a variety of plastics and it is not possible to recycle the shredded fragments so they have to go to landfill.

Many of our customers have small quantities of magnetic and optical media that require secure destruction. We will collect them when we make a document shredding visit and store them securely until the truck is empty of paper. Then we can securely shred them and collect the fragments for burial.

The 13,500 steps to secure shredding

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:58:00 GMT

When we started Allshred six years ago, part of our basic business philosophy was to make it easy for our customers to do business with us. A key element of this is our offer that we will move your material from its storage location to the Allshred mobile shredding truck parked nearby. In most cases this means loading our wheelie bins with the material for secure shredding in the storeroom, or occasionally bringing the archive boxes down from the loft.

A recent job tested our commitment and stamina to the maximum.

A long established legal practice in a market town had stored its archive on the second floor of their building for many years. The rooms had been racked out with industrial shelving to store the ‘File transfer boxes’ that can each hold up to 6 kilos of documents. Each bay has three shelves with 48 boxes per shelf. They had now run out of space for storage and had decided that all files over 15 years old could be securely shredded. As the Office Manager described it ‘It has taken us several years to get all the boxes up there, we don’t want to have to bring them down’.

In total 750 boxes of documents required destruction. These had to be carried down two flights of stairs to a narrow side alley where the contents of the boxes can be loaded into the wheelie bins and the cardboard boxes flattened. By carrying four boxes at a time, we could reduce the number of trips up and down the 36 steps from ground floor to storeroom to 188, a total of over 13,500 steps.

The job was scheduled to start early in the morning so that we could be sure to get a parking place outside the office and entrance to the side alley. Over a number of hours, we completed the task and securely shredded just under 4000 kilos of documents. This means that 59 trees have been returned for recycling. In addition we collected 150 kilos of cardboard boxes that were also baled and returned for recycling.

Our client was very pleased with the tidy and efficient way in which we carried out the work. They were also very relieved that Allshred did the hard work of carrying the boxes down - we certainly went the extra 13,500 steps!

All Shred at the NAID Europe Conference 2011

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:12:00 GMT

In November we attended the European conference of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), the international trade association for Information Destruction companies. The two day conference was organised jointly with PRISM, the trade association for Record Storage companies, and ARMA, the Records Managers Association. The shared interest in data protection and privacy of these three groups was an important element in planning the event.

We were privileged to have Peter Hustinx, the EU Data Protection Supervisor as our keynote speaker. His presentation selected key areas from the review of the European Data Protection Directive that will be released in Q1 2012. This will require greater accountability of data controllers and their sub-contractors for data security and obligations for data breach notification will follow. This may take a few years to implement but organisations should take steps now to ensure they adopt best practice.

Recent well publicised data breaches by prominent UK politicians were a reminder of the continued need for education and training. The UK Information Commissioner continues to try and educate businesses on the issue of data protection and applies significant monetary fines only in serious/repeat offences.

The importance of having written policies and procedures for information and document destruction was reinforced several times in presentations by senior security professionals and investigators. Every organisation should be able to demonstrate they are serious in protecting the security of their company, client and personal information.

Allshred is qualified to use the NAID Compliance toolkit to help companies prepare robust policies and procedures for document destruction.

In early 2012 Allshred will have a training video produced by NAID available for our customers to use in their staff training. More details of this will be released shortly.

New Winter Record for Secure Shredding in Charlbury

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:19:00 GMT

At the Charlbury Shred-In on 3 December 2011, twenty five individuals bought material along to be shredded securely in the Allshred mobile shredding truck. When the truck arrived at 9.55am there were two customers waiting to watch their documents shredded in to random shaped fragments. For the next hour there was a steady flow of people with their sacks of papers that required shredding.

By noon we had shredded the equivalent of 6 trees and a contribution of £82.00 was made to the Charlbury Sports Pavillion Appeal.

It was encouraging that almost half the people bringing material for secure shredding were newcomers to the shredding event. Many were impressed by the shredding service and plan to return for the next Shred-In in June 2012.

The date for the next Charlbury Shred-In in summer 2012 has been moved to take account of the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. The Charlbury Shred- In will be held on Saturday 9 June from 10.00am-12 noon at the Spendlove car park.

Is Oxford Better Than London at Securely Shredding Your Data?

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:51:00 GMT

When Members of Parliament throw out personal information they get headlines. However, it turns out that the casual disposal of personal data is “business-as-usual” for many London-area institutions.

A recent study shows that over 40%of London’s commercial waste bins contained highly confidential personal details.
Would the results in Oxfordshire be better or worse than London?

According to a study commissioned by the US-based National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), the casual disposal of extremely sensitive personal information is a common practice for a significant portion of London-area organisations.

In a month-long study, private investigators examined the contents of the city’s publicly accessible commercial waste bins in an effort to determine the amount of personal information present there.

Included among the targets were a number of London-area hospitals, law offices, bank headquarters and branch offices, as well as government agencies.

The study was commissioned by NAID to determine whether or not the recently escalated data protection fines, now at £500,000, and the ongoing publicity about the dangers of identity theft were being taken seriously.

According to NAID Europe member Ian MacKay of Oxfordshire based Allshred Limited, “The instructions to the investigators were quite explicit. They were not to go to extraordinary lengths or breach any laws when examining the garbage. We hired them to simply look in the bin to see what any passerby might find.”

Overall, 44% of the institutions, each with a legal burden to protect personal information, were found to be discarding personal information casually.

Among the findings:

A leading private hospital was found to have discarded the medical records of 70 vulnerable patients – including their names, addresses and details of their treatment.
Outside a top London law office, a 20-page document, detailing the case of a young woman with mental health problems and currently in foster care, was found on the pavement in a waste bag. All four of the law firms whose commercial garbage was subject to investigation were found to have personal client details in the waste.
Outside a national chemists store chain, the waste was found to contain over 20 prescription labels including details such as patients’ names, addresses, and details of the medication prescribed. Some also included doctors’ names, dates of birth of patients and information on future requirements for medication.

As to the cause of such callous disregard for clients’ personal data, Ian MacKay says, “It is a matter of priorities. Employers do not stress the importance of data protection to frontline staff. The emphasis is on productivity and not security. It is simply not productive to stand by a small slow office shredder destroying documents.”

Stephen Anderson of Crown Intelligence who carried out the study said, “It’s shocking to know that these firms break the law regularly. We couldn’t believe some of the personal information we found just dumped in public rubbish bins that leave people wide open to identity fraud if it fell into the wrong hands.”

Anderson added, “It wasn’t like we found single pieces of paper with a careless note here and there. In most cases there were complete documents, emails, letters, computer print-outs and reports in full.”

Five weeks ago Vince Cable was forced to publicly apologise when documents were found left beside a low wall outside the Business Secretary's constituency headquarters each week in plastic bags for recycling.

In October, Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister, was forced to apologise after being photographed dumping similar papers in public waste bins in London’s St James’s Park.

NAID reports they are not releasing the names of the organisations that were subject to the investigation.

According to Ian MacKay, “Releasing the names would actually be a disservice to the public. If we make the issue about the bad behaviour of a couple of dozen organisations, we will lose sight of the real issue. The real issue is how wide spread the problem is. It makes no sense to try to isolate a handful of institutions when on any given day, 2 out of 5 organisations are doing the same thing.”

Allshred provide an on-site shredding service for organisations of all sizes and for private individuals. In 2008, Allshred was the first English secure shredding company to gain NAID AAA Certification, the international gold standard for security and operations. They offer guidance on preparing robust policies and procedures for Information Destruction. In early 2012, we will be able to offer new training material for client staff.

Charlbury Shredding Event December 2011

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:13:00 GMT

Don't forget that our shredding event in Charlbury is coming up on December 3rd 2011.

The event starts at at 10am at the Spendlove Car Park. Sacks for items to be shredded can be collected from the Charlbury Post Office and will cost £5 (to be paid on the day) with £2 of each sack going to the Charlbury Community Centre.

We hope to see you there!

New record at Wychwood School Shred-In

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:13:00 GMT

The Wychwood School Shred-In on Saturday 5 November set a new record for the weight of paper shredded.

Two customers were already waiting for the Allshred mobile shredding truck when it arrived just before 9.00am. Within minutes their sacks of shreddable material were weighed, the contents securely shredded and the Certificate of Destruction completed so that they could enjoy the rest of the weekend, confident that their personal information could not get into the wrong hands and be used by criminals.

This shredding event saw a number of new attendees, as well as a core of local residents that have used the service since it started in November 2006. We even had a retired doctor from Esher, Surrey who, after seeing our website, had brought several boxes of old medical records so that he could be certain they were securely shredded.

In all, twenty one customers brought a total of 496 kilos for shredding, the equivalent of 7.5 trees, that will be recycled into paper products. A total of £80.00 was paid to the Wychwood School funds.

The next Wychwood School Shred-In will be held on Saturday 5 May 2012. As ever, you can obtain bags ahead of the shredding event from the Milton-under-Wychwood Post Office.

November 2011 Shred In

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:20:00 GMT

Don't forget we have another of our shred-in events coming up on November 5th!

The event will take place at Wychwood Primary School between 9am and 11am. You can collect sacks from the Post Office in Milton Under Wychwood before the event.

This will cost £5 per sack, £2 of which will be donated to the school and is to be paid on the day.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact us. We hope to see you there!

Changes To The Waste Regulations

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:02:00 GMT

As of 28 September 2011, the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 took effect. This update to the legislation is to implement revisions to the Waste Framework Directive, an EU Directive.

Over the years, we have all become familiar with the three steps of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ and the revised Waste Framework Directive places greater emphasis on the waste hierarchy to ensure that waste is dealt with in priority order:

Prevention > Preparing for re-use > Recycling > Other recovery > Disposal

For more information visit the Environment Agency.

All companies and organisations are required to follow the Waste Hierarchy for each of the waste material streams that they produce, and this is something that customers of Allshred are following already.

Allshred customers segregate their paper from other waste materials, before asking Allshred to shred papers and documents. This prepares their paper for re-use as all the paper we shred is recycled back to UK paper mills.
We also provide documentation to our customers to demonstrate compliance and provide an audit trail.

This therefore means that our customers are compliant with the Directive for the waste paper that is handled by Allshred.

For companies that are not using Allshred to carry out their secure shredding, please contact us to see how we can help you comply with the new regulations.

Shredding Documents for Manufacturers

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:45:00 GMT

Manufacturers generate a lot of documents as well as the products for which they are known. These documents will include details of material purchases, inspection and test results, export orders and shipping documents, build schedules and many others besides. This is in addition to the financial, accounts and personnel records that all companies produce.

Companies that have a quality management system accredited to ISO 9001 are required to have a document control system including a process for the destruction of obsolete documents. This should include setting specific ‘Retention expiry’ dates when each file or box can be securely shredded.

One leading manufacturer of electrical equipment has used Allshred to carry out the secure shredding of documents that are no longer needed. The company has a well marked and ordered archive so that it is easy to prepare pallets with the boxes of documents for shredding. Key document categories include build sheets, inspection reports, test results, export orders, shipping documents, invoices and monthly computer print-outs of accounts records. At a recent visit, over two tonnes of documents were shredded on-site in 1.5 hours.

The UK subsidiary of a US toolmaker contacted Allshred because a redundant office above the machine shop was full with over 400 archive boxes of records, some of which dated back more than 15 years. One member of staff was tasked to check and label the boxes that could be shredded, a job that took several months. Access to the room was restricted so a cage on a fork lift truck was used to move the boxes down to ground level where the Allshred mobile shredding truck was parked. On the first morning almost 5 tonnes of assorted documents were shredded and the secure section of the truck was full. These shredded fragments were unloaded and baled ready to return to the paper mill for recycling to household tissue. Two days later Allshred returned to complete the job. In total the equivalent of 81 trees were recycled.

Using the Allshred on-site secure shredding service ensures that confidential company records about customers, products and staff do not get into the wrong hands at destruction time.

Working With Retailers and Distributors

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:18:00 GMT

All shops, garden centres and on-line stores have a statutory duty to protect the personal information of their customers. Every credit card transaction produces a hard copy of personal details that must be retained for a period of months or years. Packing lists and dispatch notes also hold customer address details that should be stored securely; while quotations and invoices from suppliers could be valuable to competitors with details of specifications, prices, payment terms etc. Just like any business, they also have personnel and salary records that must be kept securely.

The Information Commissioners Office is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Data Protection Act. They now have the authority to impose fines of up to £500,000 on organisations who do not comply with this legislation. The ICO encourage companies to set and implement specific policies and procedures for information retention and destruction. Legislation about Data Breach notification to individuals affected is on the horizon. Allshred has the expertise to help organisations to prepare an Information Destruction policy and procedures.

Allshred has worked with a variety of retailers to ensure personal information was securely shredded.

On Saturday 27 December 2008, we received a call from Woolworths in Banbury requesting a one off shredding visit ASAP. We made the visit on Monday 29 December to shred personnel and stock records. By the end of the following week, we had made shredding visits to six other Woolworths stores in our region.

Allshred also works with one highly successful online specialist retailer at regularly shred completed order records that have passed their retention expiry date. By organising and controlling their archive well and using Allshred to destroy the contents of up to 200 archive boxes at a visit, they have not needed to increase the archive space despite a major increase in sales turnover. In two years we have shredded and recycled the equivalent of 90 trees for the company.

Trade distributors are similar to retailers in that they have a large number of low value transactions, often with multiple items. Stock lists, picking and packing lists and delivery notes all contain information that should be shredded securely at disposal. Allshred service several distribution companies making visits on request either annually or more often depending upon volumes and the trading pattern.

Using the Allshred on-site secure shredding service ensures that confidential company records about customers, products and staff do not get into the wrong hands at destruction time.

NAID AAA Financial Data Security

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:37:00 GMT

Insurance Brokers and IFAs have access to the detailed financial records of their clients who need to feel confident that this information is protected and cannot be accessed by unauthorised individuals at any time. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is the regulatory body and they set strict requirements for the security of information in line with the Data Protection Act. This is one of the key subjects assessed during their inspection visits to authorised companies.

On-site secure shredding is recognised by the FSA as providing high security when personal information has to be destroyed. Companies are encouraged to use a Contract service from a certified provider, such as Allshred Limited.

In 2008, Allshred was the first English secure shredding company to achieve NAID AAA certification, the international gold standard for secure destruction companies. As part of this certification, we are subject to random unannounced audits, the most recent of which was in June 2011, to ensure that we meet all the criteria required by the FSA.

Allshred works with a variety of companies in the financial sector. One leading underwriter has used Allshred at regular intervals over the past 5 years to destroy old client files as they have progressed towards electronic storage methods. Many tonnes of old records have been shredded, much to the relief of the Building Surveyor who had concerns about the weight on the upper floors. Two large independent insurance brokers use Allshred to regularly shred the routine papers and documents that are produced daily as well as obsolete client files.

At one of these companies, we have placed secure cabinets with each work group so that the staff can deposit redundant papers at any time. Allshred then visit every two weeks to shred the contents of the cabinets. The other company provide each person with an Allshred sack by their desk and a shredding visit is arranged on request when the sacks are full.

Many of our IFA clients have small offices and we tailor the visit frequency to suit their volumes and any space constraints. In all cases our task is to ensure that no personal information can be used by criminals to carry out identity fraud and theft.

Keeping School Information Secure

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Schools hold large quantities of personal information about each pupil in the form of family information, test results, attendance records, term reports and assignments. Many of these items have defined retention periods before they can be discarded. It is essential to use a secure destruction method to ensure that there is no possibility of a data breach.

Schools are also significant businesses with up to 100 employees. This means the quantity of recruitment and employment records, salary details and financial records is substantial. Many schools have been able to store old records for years in cellars and cupboards, but eventually they run out of space. This is when they call Allshred to help out.

At Allshred, we have worked with a large number of schools. One of our first clients was Wychwood CE Primary School in Shipton under Wychwood. During our first visit in July 2006, we shredded many years of old pupil records. Since then, Allshred has worked in partnership with the school to run two ‘shred-In events’ per year for parents and local inhabitants to get personal papers destroyed securely and support the school fundraising efforts.

One leading independent school in central Oxford invited Allshred to carry out on-site shredding of 60 archive boxes from the cellars which was completed without disturbing any lessons.

A large boarding school near Banbury has used Allshred in early September for the past four years to regularly shred school records, obsolete teaching materials and ensure that all members of staff can start the year with clear desks and cupboards.

By contrast a primary school in Cirencester has arranged a visit by Allshred in the last few days of the summer term every year to shred papers so that the school is ‘clean and secure’ at the end of the school year.

Recently, All Shred was recommended to a school in Carterton who needed the secure shredding of many years of old records. The school was preparing for a major renovation that would be carried out over the summer holiday and had discovered large quantities of records and obsolete materials in several areas of the school. Allshred carried out the shredding after school the day before the end of term and the equivalent of 7 trees were shredded and recycled.

How Allshred Keeps Student and Research Information Secure at Oxford University

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:51:00 GMT

The colleges at Oxford University have evolved over hundreds of years into organisations with significant wealth and turnover, and an ever-changing list of students. This means they hold a wide range of personal and financial information about students, staff and suppliers, as well as the confidential research material held by University staff.

All colleges should have a structured plan for information retention and procedures for secure destruction at the end of the retention period. Allshred has experience that can help to review these plans and procedures to ensure that they meet current guidelines and best practice.

Allshred are contracted by one of the oldest colleges at Oxford University to provide an on-site secure shredding service on demand. We have supplied them with two lockable large wheelie bins with paper slots in the lid that are located near the Dean’s and the Bursar’s offices. The College contacts Allshred when the bin is getting full and a shredding visit is arranged within a week to shred the contents. On average they have called for eight visits a year.

When a longstanding Fellow retired at the end of the academic year, there was an accumulation of several decades of papers and journals that needed shredding. We were able to combine this with our routine visit.

At another Oxford University college, the Office Administrator prefers to store up redundant documents through the year in a large cupboard. Allshred are called in September to shred the contents of the cupboard ready for the start of the new academic year.

Every College has its particular structure and tradition. Allshred can provide a secure shredding service tailored to the requirements of any college.