Professional paper shredding is a great way to clean out offices, ensure data protection, and prevent the release of sensitive data. While shredding paper is important, a majority of offices have other forms of print and media that contains data. Instead of leaving that data vulnerable, you can use the same paper shredding companies to help with the destruction of additional data. Along with paper, there are five types of objects that can be easily shredded to bits and properly recycled. With these services, you can ensure that data is not released and your company stays protected as items are cleaned out.

Old Media

When cleaning out an office, it's often surprising to see the type of old media and technology that you will find. Even though the items are data, items like floppy disks and zip drives may contain sensitive information. This includes documents, social security numbers, and employment histories. Hackers and people looking to access information can easily purchase media readers to download the data. By hiring a professional shredder, the media discs will be completely destroyed and shredded so the data cannot be retrieved.

Optical Discs

As floppy discs fell through the wayside, optical discs like CD-Roms and DVDs began to take over. These discs can hold a lot more data, creating more space to hold sensitive files and data. Even if a disc is scratched or manipulated, data can be recovered using a lot of different tools. By putting it through a shredder, the optical disc can be destroyed and broken down into dozens of pieces that can never be put back together again.

Spiral Notebooks & Office Supplies

One of the main issues with basic paper shredding is that the shredders cannot handle objects like rubber bands and paper clips. By using advanced shredder services, everything can get dumped into one shredder instead of having to manually separate it all. This means that you can get rid of complete file folders. You do not have to worry about staples, thick papers, or other small office supplies that are attached to data. Some shredders will even accept full spiral notebooks. This gives you the ability to place a complete notebook into the shredder and watch as it torn apart and placed in multiple pieces.

Computer Hard Drives

A single computer hard drive can contain nearly all of your company's sensitive company data. Even after a hard drive has been erased, recovery tools can be used to get data back again. When placed in a professional shredder, the hard drive will be crushed to pieces so data cannot be accessed. While whole computers can be accepted, it's often easier to remove the hard drive and shred it separately. This process also includes USB flash drives and portable hard drives.

Business Phones & Devices

Email accounts, company texts, and contact information are often shared through business phones and older devices. When new phones are purchased, the older devices should be properly disposed of so that all of the sensitive data is destroyed. Even if you remove the SD card or SIM card on the phone, the phone hardware may still contact sensitive data and contact information. Destroying the whole phone is the only true way to eliminate the data.

Along with phones, you can destroy old or malfunction tablets. Tablets are essentially a larger phone and may contain data that you do not want getting released to the public. Older technology can also be destroyed during this process. This includes items like hand-held PDA devices. Before smart phones and tablets became popular, PDAs were used for e-mail, documents, and contact information.

When you're cleaning out an office, set aside anything that you think can be shredded. By working with a professional company like Vital Records Control, they can provide you with all types of information on accepted items.

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