Buying and selling confidential information is becoming more and more common. While the person who obtains your data may not want it for themselves, private information is a hot commodity on the black market. In fact, according to Gerry MacKinnon of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, "There are actually corporations out there and all they do is buy and sell stolen ID. They just sell you at $60 a crack on the internet."
As such, companies in possession of any kind of sensitive client or employee data, especially those with access to sensitive government information, have to become experts in preventative measures to protect that information.
Considering such, it is notable that British Cabinet Office Minister, Oliver Lewtin, was reportedly found to be violating the UK's Data Protection Act, practically giving away government information by casually throwing away documents pertaining to terrorism and national security in a local park trashcan in late 2011.
According to reports, Lewtin was photographed disposing of more than 100 documents in the public area, exposing politician names and intelligence letters to anyone who looked.
While an ensuing investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office only yielded an official reprimand, warning Lewtin that more direct sanctions would be handed down should he improperly dispose of sensitive documents again, this example illustrates how easy it could be for clumsy disposal practices to put confidential information directly into the hands of passersby.
To prevent similar instances of improper data disposal from occurring, it is in the best interest of any agency to hire a paper shredding and document disposal service to design and implement a regular corporate or government-issued destruction program. Lewtin's behavior exemplifies how one employee's actions can put countless others at risk, and the regular destruction of both paper and digital records is a foolproof method to be absolutely sure that employees cannot discard of confidential data in the reach of data harvesters.
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