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News
Improve Records Management and Eliminate Fraud
By Philip Bain
Recent Government figures show that Identity Fraud in
the United Kingdom costs £1.7 Billion a year. This represents
£35 for every adult in the country and is a £400 million
increase since a previous official estimate in 2002.
This is the result of about 135,000 incidents a year,
personal and business. It is a massive 500 per cent
increase since 1999.
The Home Office Minister Andy Burnham has said that
Identity Fraud underpins criminality right across the
spectrum, from benefit fraud to money laundering through
to more serious crime and terrorism.
In the United States a 5 year study has revealed that
in the period under review approximately 27 million
Americans experienced Identity Fraud costing Business,
Individuals and Government 53 billion dollars a year.
It is one of the fastest growing and also fasting changing
crimes in the world. On an ongoing basis criminals are
developing new and more ingenious ways of stealing Identities.
It must therefore be recognised as a serious problem
with the potential to increase significantly year on
year and its prevention must be a priority for Business
and individuals.
Businesses should carry out risk management assessments
on how open they are to the fraudsters and develop techniques
to monitor results and implement techniques to frustrate
the criminal.
All records specific to a company are sensitive. Customer
records and contracts, Human resource files, payroll,
financial records. There is generally enough in a bin
bag to create one false identity. Organisations must
be aware of the risk they run in uncontrolled disposal
of documents. Similarly they must recognise the potential
for disorganised filing systems to put their businesses
and reputations at serious risk. If there is the potential
to find enough information in discarded documents to
steal identities the risk must be increased through
haphazard filing systems. How often are boxes of files
left for days on end without being supervised.
Consider how much is spent on security guards, alarms,
CCTV systems, investigators, and computer safety? Yet
one file going astray or sensitive information dumped
in the wrong place can highlight a weakness. Careless
document management and disposal can damage a firm’s
reputation.
Often we hear of documents being leaked to the media,
private records illegally dumped or even information
being stolen. And still many companies are of the opinion
that a Business disaster will never happen to them.
But you cannot plan for the unexpected. Saving money
on secure records management, retention policy and confidential
disposal is a false economy.
More and more organisations in the Public & Private
Sector are turning to off-site document storage and
management companies. It has now reached a stage that
it is less common for files to be stored in house and
more common for this function to be outsourced to professional
record management companies.
Whilst paper records remain vital, the integration of
bar coded tracking of hard copy filing with scanning
and hosting solutions have become more widely available
as the technology develops.
Generally the emphasis has been on physical security
of the prime storage location rather than the need to
track files and have proper systems in place to ensure
that their whereabouts are known. The need for security
does not end there and as many organisations have found
to their cost, proper disposal of documents requires
supervised on site destruction.
Nowadays document disposal is a growth sector. Your
sensitive documents can be securely shredded at your
office premises while your representative watches eliminating
any risk of theft. A record of the transaction is provided
to prove that sensitive material has been disposed of
securely. Apart from the commercial imperatives of ensuring
that information is available the consequences of poor
tracking and disposal can have serious legal and reputational
consequences.
Implementing a document management policy demonstrates
that your company is striving for best practice and
is adhering to its legal and regulatory obligations.
It represents to employees and clients the value your
organisation places on document management.
A Document Retention Policy requires comprehensive guidelines,
which endorse your organisations principles on document
management. Implementing a Document Retention Policy
demonstrates that your organisation is striving for
best practice and adhering to any legal or regulatory
obligations. It also represents to employees and third
parties the value that your organisation places on document
management. . If there is no business reason or legal
obligation to retain a document, it can be destroyed.
Retention of documents should be for legitimate business
purposes only. Senior Management should distribute a
Document Retention Policy statement to all staff in
the organisation. This reinforces the importance of
the organisation’s official procedures regarding their
document management policies.
A Document Retention Policy must be properly supervised.
It must ensure that all staff are aware of its existence
and be accompanied by easily accessible written guidelines
on how to apply it. Training for the proper use of these
guidelines should be provided periodically.
It is particularly important under the Freedom of information
Act that the management and disposal of records is undertaken
in accordance with clearly established policies. Records
that have reached the end of their administrative life
must be disposed securely, providing management with
confidence and peace of mind.
Philip Bain is General Manager of DMG Services in Northern
Ireland. The company comprises Filestores, Shred-it
and Scan Image Services, encompassing a single service
solution for document and data management including;
storage, scanning, filing and destruction. They employ
40 people at their offices at Knockmore, Lisburn. For
more information on our service visit www.dmg-services.com
or call 028 9266 3535.
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