The Big Issue

The very latest Home Office study estimates the cost of identity theft at a hefty £1.7 billion. Recent research carried out on behalf of Royal & Sun Alliance shows that corporate identity theft is one of the fastest-growing threats facing British businesses. It’s set to rise by a massive 1300% come 2020.

These are truly alarming statistics about a type of crime that can affect both businesses and individuals in equal measure. Ample evidence, too, as to why companies should be making every effort to protect themselves from the fraudsters.

What is corporate identity theft? In essence, it involves fraudsters stealing the identity of a company and then trading illegally under that company’s credit rating and reputable name. It can lead to assets being stolen and, ultimately, an empty bank account for the innocent party. Identity theft can (and often does) have huge ramifications for a company’s reputation.

A key means of guarding against identity theft is to use a professional destruction company for destroying confidential information in all of its forms paper, disks, branded products and uniforms, etc.

Ensuring that you are working with a reputable company is imperative when it comes to protecting the integrity of the information destruction process. To this end, BSIA Member Companies in its dedicated Information Destruction Section are inspected to BS 8470 by a UKAS-accredited certification body as part of their inspection to ISO 9001:2000.

By employing a BSIA Member Company, the end user will also be fulfilling their disposal requirements under the Data Protection Act. All businesses would be well advised to review their confidential information disposure procedures, and to access the BSIA’s Security Waste Audit