How Can I Protect My Business From Identity Theft During The Holiday Season?

The holiday season is a busy time of year, both for families and fraudsters. Identity theft is a major problem during the end of the year because it’s the time when families across the country are making more online purchases and using their credit cards more often.

Fortunately, you can help keep your business and employees safe from identity theft this holiday season and throughout the year with the following tips.

Review your security policies with your employees

During the rush of the holiday season, your employees may be forgetful of your company’s security policies. Consider reviewing your company’s security policies with your employees to confirm everyone is one the same page and understands the proper procedures.

Your company procedures may include protocols for opening unsecured emails, locking away valuables during the holiday break if your business has one, and security action plans in case of an emergency.

Use a virtual protected network

Your employees may go back and forth between their work emails and holiday shopping during their lunch break. This can be problematic if your employees are using public wifi, which isn’t secure.

By using a virtual protected network, you enable your employees to safely and securely access the information they need from work while being away from the office without putting company information at risk.

Schedule an additional document shredding appointment

If you use a professional shredding service, it may be a good idea to schedule an additional pickup during the holiday season. Fraudsters are more likely to steal information during the holiday season, so it’s a good idea to be safe and destroy your unused documents as soon as possible.

If your business doesn’t use shredding services, consider scheduling one to reduce your risk of identity theft this season. Identity theft costs businesses up to $48 billion every year and the most common form of reported identity theft is government documents/benefits fraud (34%).

Use the document shredding services Portland residents trust

Your personal information is at risk not only during the holiday season but also year round. It’s important that you’re not throwing away documents that haven’t been shredded or have only been shredded by a hand-held paper shredder.

Data Safe provides the document shredding services Portland residents can trust to safely and securely destroy unused documents. To schedule a one-time document purge or ongoing schedule document shredding, contact Data Safe today.