Did you know that Elon Musk's sense of smell is so sensitive that Tesla job seekers were allegedly told not to wear perfume to interviews? Presumably, if you do get the job, and plan to work around Elon, you'll be forever putting your favorite cologne or fragrance aside. Hey - his business, his rules. You may not tell employees how they are allowed to smell, but your business definitely has rules about how employees can use company payment cards, access cards, and ID cards. Are your rules for card destruction clearly defined? End-of-life data security is just as important as the data security of the cards and documents your business is actively using. But card busting is often overlooked.
Card destruction is as important as card protection
A small card can open many doors (both physical and virtual) to your company that you don't want outsiders to be able to walk through. Even an expired credit card can give thieves access to corporate financial accounts you don't want them to have. As a result, business leaders are justifiably concerned about how corporate cards are managed and have a lot of rules on how employees use them.
For example, if an employee loses ID more than once, you may take disciplinary action because you can't let an employee carelessly misplace a card that anyone can use to get into your office. You may also have safeguards in place to ensure that employees who have access to company payment cards do not use those cards for personal purchases. Anyone who wants to continue working for you must adhere to the standards you set for your corporate card.
While employees have documents, hard drives, payment cards, ID cards, and other items that may hold sensitive data about your business, you can hold them responsible for securing these items. But managing end-of-life data destruction is the responsibility of the employer. It is the employer's job to verify that all outdated payment cards and other data storage devices have been collected by a reputable shredding service and permanently destroyed.
Does your data security policy address card destruction?
Card destruction needs to be addressed in your employee training materials and in your data security policy. Organizational leadership cannot expect employees to adhere to a card destruction policy unless the policy is clearly defined. Including this policy in your training materials allows you to point it out later in case you do need to penalize employees for improper card destruction. It doesn't have to be complicated; your card destruction policy basically boils down to "all payment/access cards and ID badges must be collected so they can be destroyed by a secure service at the end of their life cycle."
Collectibles are important. Some employees may look at their home shredder with a built-in credit card slot and think "I can shred this expired corporate credit card or plastic ID myself", resulting in an incorrect card like the picture in this article. This is a lot easier than having to mail or deliver the card and ID in person to the person designated by your company who is responsible for collecting sensitive material for shredding.
The problem is, you can't verify after the fact that the employee actually shredded your company's sensitive data, or that they held it secretly. Internal fraud can occur in any business of any size. Even if you trust your team, there is always a chance that someone who is greedy or in a desperate situation will try to use their insider status to defraud your business.
Educating employees about card destruction policies will unequivocally tell them that your business is serious about card destruction. They should know that specific people in your organization or specific offices track outdated payment and access cards, badges, and any other company property that holds sensitive data. Any employee who might want to try to keep an ID or access card when they quit will know not to bother, because your company won't let that happen. Northeast Data Destruction helps businesses manage all of their card destruction needs. Whether you have a few expired corporate cards to destroy, or a box full of old IDs is taking up space in your storage area, we can handle everything from safely picking up your shredded materials to shredding at our NAID certified shredding facility All things that are permanently destroyed. Someone in your business could even witness the devastation if you wanted to. If you have any questions about security card destruction, please feel free to ask. Contact me today.