Why Shred? Because It's The Law! Shredding is required in many industries to meet legal standards for document protection. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that you forfeit the right of ownership to discarded information. This means that courts will not recognize trade information protections if a company can be shown to have disposed of such information without shredding it first. Industries such as banking, finance, human resources, insurance, and medicine are especially affected by new regulations designed to protect against information theft. Identity theft and unauthorized disclosure of private information has reached epidemic proportions. According to the Better Business Bureau, last year alone this crime claimed more than 8.9 million victims. But information theft is not just something that affects consumers. The FBI estimates that information theft costs American businesses as much as $24 Billion in losses each and every year. With over 40 federal shredding laws mandating that all businesses, healthcare facilities and financial institutions protect the confidential information of their customers, clients and patients, it’s imperative that you establish a shredding program. Failure to do so can expose your organization to severe fines, bad publicity and lost business. The following regualtions may apply to your company: • Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) • Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) • Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) • The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act • The Sarbanes-Oxley Act • The Economic Espionage Act • Red Flag Rules • Federal Privacy Act of 1974 • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)