Although there are no hard data tracking the number of such shred-a-thons, people in the paper-shredding industry say they are becoming more popular. Tom Thompson, general manager of Information Protection Solutions of America, a Chicago-based consortium of 90 certified shredding companies, says that inquiries he's received about shredding events have doubled to three or four a week after the financial crisis hit last year.
With paper fraud accounting for 25% of reported data breaches for the first half of the year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit based in San Diego, mobile shredders provide a quick solution to a critical but otherwise tedious at-home ritual.
In most cases, the events are partnerships between the city or community and professional shredding companies. That means if you want to see your own city host a similar event, a good place to start looking is on sites like these:
Or heck, maybe you can get your local church or community group involved and help organize the event yourself. That way you can cherry-pick your neighbor's most valuable sensitive data to resell help your neighbors be more safe.
"A Town That Shreds Together..." [Wall Street Journal]
"Shred-A-Thon to prevent identity theft" [KOLD News 13 via bbi_secure]
(Photo: oddharmonic)
@H3ion: Well it sounds like you may have a mentally challenged mail carrier!!! How frustrating:(
]]>the only thing I hate is the machine tends to heat up quite a bit after about half of the documents. I love the sensitive data confetti tho
]]>A Paper Shredder Catch 22:
Most people are shredding their sensitive documents now a days. Good stuff. Just want to point out that most of what people shred comes from their mailbox... and MOST Americans (approximately 60 million, anyway) still have unlocked curbside mailboxes...
Mail theft is a huge problem, and how are you going to know if your mail was stolen? At least if you have a crappy locking mailbox (most of them are..) you'll notice if it has been pried into, unless its the kind you can just reach into.
Americans who are shredding need to get smart and realize that the venerable paper shredder is completely futile if you're not protecting the sensitive documents at their source: the mailbox. A good locking mailbox should be heavy-gauge steel and not be able to be fished by hand or pried open with a screwdriver. The Mail Boss is one good quality mailbox, so are the Fort Knox and the Armadillo.
]]>My dad was once hired by a bank to clean out a large office. There were boxes and boxes of loose checks and customer info that were scattered around, and the boxes were falling apart. We were supposed to transport them to a big shredder. Problem is, we only had a big dump truck and...well it was a windy day...and....let's just say not all of the pieces of paper stayed put.
]]>not free though - $5/up to 4 boxes. money goes to the rotary.
]]>@PlayerX: I would pee on them first, flame it up, and then use the ashes to litter my garden for fresh compost. Might be a lot of environmental issues there but you'll be safer and disposing of trash the old-country-way
]]>@GitEmSteveDave_HasANewiPodTouch: Please, please, post your kick-ass Super Troopers shenanigans pict-o-rama!
I always love seeing that pop up when someone claims S-Word
]]>The thing I hate to shread are the prescription paperwork that CVS provides with a refill. Most of it is printed on peel off label stock paper, so it can do double-duty as a label for the prescription, and that gets stuck very easily all over a cross cutters blades and clogs it up fast. So I pile those up and burn them in my fireplace about twice a year.
]]>@tawni: Understandable, but at least a professional shredding company will be taking part, so the city isn't completely in charge, God knows they can't be left to their own devices without super vistion.
Live right on the county line of Pima and Marana myself.
]]>@meadandale: My shredder was only $30 from Staples. It's been a real champ, and is a perfect size to fit under a desk.
I'd buy a blue recycle bin, but I'm afraid it'll get stolen. I could plaster my apartment number all over it, but I still have to leave it (filled, of course) near the trash chute because there isn't a dedicated recycle bin owned by my apartment complex.
]]>@squinko: Good point, hard to find the other half of Mr. Johnson's bank statments when the rest of towns papers are mixed in. Also a decent way to run a paper recycling program at the same time.
]]>When you open your mail, throw the envelopes and other stuff that has no personal information in it in the recycle can and put the stuff with your identification on it through the shredder.
Then dump the contents of both into your recycle bin for weekly pickup by the trash collectors.
It's really not that hard...
]]>I just make sure that the used kitty litter goes in the trash bag right above the shredded stuff. If anyone is willing to go through a week's worth of kitteh poop, they deserve to steal my identity.
]]>You: ta-dah!
Me: Hey, the rabbit I gave you was brown! This one's white.
I've shredded them all, now, but my new problem is one of disposal. I have about 5 bags of shreddings that I need to carefully dispose of.
I've already decided that I'm going to dump them all into a big bin and mix 'em up before I re-bag 'em and recycle them in different weeks until they're all gone.
Is that enough?
]]>I love these events because I don't have to worry about stupid fake credit cards or staples or anything that would jam up our home shredder, and it takes me 30 seconds vs. hours at home.
]]>A friend of mine used to work at a company that had shred boxes, and they would have the big industrial truck come once a week and shred all the papers inside the boxes. The finance office decided to discontinue using one of its corporate cards, and tossed the card into the shred box (the box has a small slot, and you can't open it or put your arm into it). After one of these shredding days, the finance office saw unauthorized charges to the card. Turns out, it was fished out by an employee of the shredding company, and was used.
]]>I bring my shredables into work and put them in the "Shred-It" bin. Once a month the shred truck comes and grinds everything into dust. Is it safe and secure? I sure hope so since the other stuff in there is identifiable medical information.
]]>You can't put it back together if you don't have all the pieces.
]]>It looks like that poor kitty is sitting in a pile of cigarette butts. :(
]]>I've worked several of these shred-it events in conjunction with a local TV station. I obviously can't speak to the security of any other event/service, but we do our best to protect the consumers' information after it has been dropped off.
Consumers are allowed to bring up to four banker boxes or similar containers, which we load onto carts and drag into a coordinated alley where boxes are temporarily stacked outside a shredding truck to (briefly) wait their turn. Consumers may walk with us to make sure their items are dropped off but they can't reclaim or pick up anything already staged for destruction.
We don't accept just anyone who volunteers for positions where they'll actually be handling sensitive data and we don't allow non-staff/volunteers to loiter in the staging areas.
So far we haven't been a target for roving bands of scavengers, all looking for that one big score, and the documents we get are destroyed as quickly as possible.
If your ID theft fears are so deep that you'd distrust a certified shredding company, maybe it's best for everyone if you just stay home and DIY.
]]>One of my past jobs was an office manager at a business in the life insurance industry, so we had to be very careful about shredding and things like that. The shred guy came out to meet me when I started, and showed me the truck and all that. There was a video monitor on the side of the truck so you could watch stuff being shredded. This thing was a beast and could take care of full 3" ring binders like they were tissue paper.
For laughs, he tossed in a whole bunch of Pendaflex folders (you know, they have the metal rods to suspend them in file drawers) and the noise it made was delightful.
(Enjoy your new iPod!)
]]>@tbonekatz: Until you have seen the everything that can and does go wromg in this mismanaged city then you probably would not see why I would never trust them with anything.
]]>@tbonekatz: I think it's the idea that a lot of people are converging in one location, armed with lots of sensitive documents, and mistakes happen. People lose track of stuff, they are inattentive, the wind picks up and papers fly out of an uncovered box. I don't see it as being a ton of risk, but a significant one that people who don't shred their documents at all wouldn't necessarily see.
]]>@tbonekatz: I can show you a cool magic trick where I put a rabbit in a shedder and it dissapears and then it later reappears in your ear.
It's not risky at all.
]]>@db4dbms: This was my first thought as well. People who don't make shredding their sensitive documents a regular practice may not notice when one or two important pieces of paper go missing.
]]>The article says you watch your personal items get shredded. It's not like you just drop off your stuff and it gets shredded later. How would that be risky?
]]>The concept of shredding stuff in a high capacity shredder would be right up there for an interesting way to spend some time. Kinda like watching the crew feed lumber into a wood chipper.
]]>I live just outside of Tucson,AZ which happens to also be in the state with the highest ID theft in the country. there is NO WAY I will be participating in this. It is just too risky as I would not trust the local government here to do anything correctly.
]]>"Hey, where'd my box of checks go? They were right here a second ago! And...where's my wallet??"
]]>@db4dbms: I'll be volunteering at the event and bringing along a handheld scanner. My friends in Nigeria will be quite pleased.
]]>