New standard to ensure your confidential information is in safe hands

Businesses are being urged to ensure that their confidential information is in safe hands by procuring the services of a professional information destruction company that complies with a new European standard – EN 15713:2009.

BSIA Information Destruction Section Chairman, Russell Harris, comments: "The secure destruction of confidential information is an important consideration for all businesses. A new European Standard has now been developed for the sector which supersedes the old British standard and outlines the key requirements of a professional information destruction company."

"Only by using an information destruction company that is inspected to the new standard, will customers be able to rest assured that their confidential material is in safe hands. The BSIA has been at the forefront of developing the standard and as such, BSIA members will be amongst the first to work to it."

The new standard covers the following areas: material specific shred sizes; requirements regarding the installation of a monitored intruder alarm and a monitored CCTV system; a prerequisite for the security vetting of all staff; and obligations with regard to the security of collection vehicles and on-site destruction vehicles.

It is hoped that the development of this new standard will provide further reassurance to customers that by using a member of the BSIA, they are placing their confidential data into the hands of a professional company. All BSIA information destruction section members must hold ISO 9001:2008 accreditation, and will then be inspected to the new standard EN 15713:2009 as part of their ISO accreditation audit procedure.