Some Places That May Be a Data Breach Risk

18 March 2019

When speaking on the subject of information safety and formulating a plan to keep things secure, there are some usual suspects that come up as potential areas of risk. Old hard drives and papers that are thrown in the garbage carelessly are among the most common. Secure shred services come with options that help to prevent these from happening, but there are some areas that may fall through the cracks that you may not have considered beforehand.

For Papers

Ever print off a document and realize something went wrong? Maybe the printer bugged out or you could have forgotten to include something. The usual response is to toss the reject into the bin, hopefully a recycling bin and not a trash bin, and walk off to correct the error. If this is the case, then that bin is officially a data breach risk. Consider that anybody who walks by can now dip into it and take some papers out and do with them as they please, and you’d have absolutely no idea it was happening until it was too late.

Similarly, sometimes documents are left out on a desk, or simply placed into a drawer that isn’t lockable. Not only is the clutter completely unorganized, no doubt causing vital information to be lost, it also suffers the same ease of access as the open bin does. Anyone coming or going could ideally pick up some information and it would never be known.

Preventing this from happening would be as simple as setting up some secure bins and/or desk consoles in appropriate areas. Since they are locked and only have a letter slot to put papers into, it eliminates the ability for someone to stroll past and glance at sensitive information. They also simplify the process, keeping it easy for workers to learn and implement.

For Electronics

Often some older computers will be put into storage when they are being upgraded at an office. They may be a bit older but if they still work well there’s no reason to get rid of them. One thing that may be forgotten is to ensure they have been properly reset, lest they sit around with sensitive information. Why could this be a problem if they’re in storage with no internet connection? Well, pretty well everybody has a USB stick these days who could plugin, copy some data, and then walk off.

What about Wi-Fi hot spots? Many ISP’s provide a stick that can be plugged into your machine as a mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, and that doesn’t even include mobile “router eggs”, which are full internet routers that fit in your pocket. These are all the electronic version of what we mentioned above, the so called walk up to the bin, reach in and take some papers home with you.

Identifying areas that could lead to a data breach is key to a successful information security plan. Think outside the box, and examine things from every possible angle, and you’ll be at a good start. A certified company like ShredPro Secure can help you along with this process. Get in touch and let us know.