A professional shredding service can be useful for a number of reasons, but the major use for a professional shredding service is that of security, both for personal reasons and for larger institutions and companies. Data breaches are all to common, but utilizing a professional shredding service or shredding companies can help to prevent some of this loss of information, and information falling into the wrong hands.

On a personal level, the theft of information often results in identify theft, a problem that is becoming, unfortunately, all the more commonplace. In fact, one out of every sixteen adults in the United States has been a victim of identity theft, and the rates of identify theft incidents have climbed by more than fifteen percent in recent years. Frightening as this may be, according to the Federal Trade Commission there is nearly a one in thirty chance that your identity will be stolen within the time frame of the next year. Identity theft is considered to be the fastest growing type of crime across the United States and it’s easy to see why – as nearly a fifty billion dollar industry, identity theft costs businesses up to forty eight billion dollars annually.

Proper document disposal is key for avoiding identity theft. We live in what is considered a digital age, and many people may assume that identity theft occurs primarily online, where many of us store highly important personal information such as banking information, credit card numbers, and the like. However, it has been proven that the majority of identity theft stems from paper documents and physical copies of information as opposed to the information that we store online. Though this may be surprising, it is true that physical documents are often easier to get a hold of. Identity theft can still be prevented, however, if documents are disposed of properly and with care. A professional shredding service can help to eradicate any change of identity theft, as shredding services can destroy a physical document to the point that any identifying or private information is not longer legible.

Identity theft is a frightening thing, and unfortunately something that happens far too often. We must be vigilant against identity theft, as it is considered to be the fastest growing type of crime in the entire country. Fortunately, identity theft can mostly be avoided if you dispose of your physical documents properly. Disposing of documents properly may mean a number of things, but one method is through hiring a professional shredding service to eradicate any chance of identifying your information from the now destroyed document. It is certainly possible for identity theft to have serious and long lasting repercussions upon the lives of the people who have been victimized it, but there are concrete steps that people can take to avoid becoming a victim to identity theft, even as the country wide rates of identity theft are likely to continue to climb.