This spring, clean up your space. Take a stock of your archive, come up with a better way to protect information and discard record which has expired.
In 2018, a data breach occurred in Canberra, Australia. The Australian Government sold its used office furniture to contractors. 2 heavy filing cabinets were sold to the contractor without any keys.
When the cabinets were drilled open, they were filled with 10 years (2008-18) of ‘TOP SECRET’ stamped marked records. Now that they have been sold off, the content of the documents has been made available to people around the world, thus top secret information is now part of public domain.
This breach occurred because the government perhaps did not have record destruction policies in place or because they were not followed. Either way, the situation turned out to be extremely embarrassing for the whole government. The incident illustrates the importance of record management program.
Organizations should take a more calculated and assessed approach towards document management this spring. Making an inventory list of your record will help you in deciding which documents are active and which have outlived their useful life. Based on the inventory, documents can be stored off-site/on-site, digitized &/or shredded. It is important that every document get archived and chain of custody noted.
A storage site must keep the physical files safe from environmental factors such as fire, water, sunlight, pests. Ideally, it should have fire fighting/detection and surveillance equipment in place so that intrusion and cases of fire break can be deterred right away. Storage site must have a 2 entry/exit control to authenticate personnel going in and out.
Papers are digitized using multiple indexes criteria so that finding them is easy. These images can be classified and crypted. To store and retrieve this record, organizations use cloud or tape storage methods.
Expired documents can be subsequently shredded. A well-documented list of expired documents is required so that it may be approved by senior manager and directors and kept in record. A shredding certificate helps to this effect.
It is noteworthy that organizations do not necessarily have the knowledge, skills or abilities to manage archive on their own, let alone ensure that records are handled with topmost security and maintain chain of custody. That is why it is it better to let a reputed archiving company manage your records.
A records management firm can help you in basic archiving and protect against any un-intended disclosure.
A good record clean up from offices allows your team to re-think the work area and maximize office space utilization. It provides instant access to information using record management program and streamline workflows. Past experiences prove that by implementing a record management program, organizations save 1,000s of square feet of workplace. Also, it avoids such embarrassing situations such as a secret and critical document ending up in the wrong hands
