What is the Cost of Losing Sensitive Information?

by Michelle Keshel

The last three decades have forever changed how businesses must operate where the protection of confidential information is concerned.

With the benefits of information systems, desktop printers, and the desire to provide better services for our customers, American Businesses, Financial Institutions, Medical Organizations, and Government Agencies have gathered incredible amounts of useful information.

This is information useful to our operations, information useful to our customers, and unfortunately, it’s also information that’s very useful to criminals.

In response to the growing and serious threats of Identify Theft and Espionage, Federal, State and Local Governments have passed important laws and regulations to govern the handling, safeguarding, and destruction of confidential consumer, business, and government information.

The best known of these laws include; HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, FACTA (the Fair Credit Reporting Act), Sarbanes-Oxley, and the Economic Espionage Act, however, these represent only a fraction of the regulations that now apply at all levels.

Many of these laws and regulations carry stiff penalties and fines for organizations that fail to comply. Additionally, recent legislation in a number of states places requirements on organizations to notify customers in the event of information compromise and to provide credit monitoring and alert services when sensitive financial identifying information is lost.

However, as we have seen through recent events, no penalty can be as harsh or severe as the one brutally handed out by the media, the market, or your own customers when you fail to protect their information. In many cases, the actual loss to reputation and the willingness of current and future customers to do business is incalculable.

As a result, information security programs are one of the most challenging, and top-most concerns that organizations face today. Certainly there is cost associated with compliance, however, by selecting a NAID certified document destruction vendor to manage your programs, both costs and risks can be effectively mitigated.