With the growth of technology in recent years here in the United States, identity fraud has become a more complex and difficult to tackle issue than ever for. After all, many people didn’t even realize the risk of identity fraud on many technological platforms, particularly those that were found online. Unfortunately, this lead to many a case of identity fraud developing in recent years, and many developing even at our present date where internet access is widespread and commonplace all throughout the country – and even considerably beyond it as well.
Fortunately, however, people are becoming more aware of online threats than ever before, something that is very much likely to considerably reduce online threats in the long run. For many people, avoiding sites and activities that look iffy in terms of security has been a great way to avoid the risk of identity fraud. In fact, up to half of all internet users in the United States alone have done this at some point in time while surfing the web, so to speak. Refraining from giving out confidential information on platforms that are not secure has been critical for reducing identity theft and identity fraud as it has occurred on various online platforms.
But all too many people think that because of the advent of technology and the widespread access to these internet platforms, other forms of identity fraud have all but died out, such as identity fraud stemming from paper documents. However, this could not be further from the truth. Data even shows that, of the more than 16.5 million victims of identity fraud here in the United States alone (according to data gathered back in the year of 2017), the majority of these cases stemmed from the improper disposal of critical and important paper documents.
Paper documents are still widely utilized all throughout the country, particularly by companies and places of business, such as office settings. However, these documents, especially documents with critically important information, are often disposed of in ways that are far from secure, opening the door to identity theft. Fortunately, the fix is a relatively easy one, and simply requires secure paper shredding services being made available in all such places where paper documents are disposed of.
Level 6 shredding is ideal, as level 6 shredding is an incredibly secure way to go about paper shredding. This level 6 shredding can be accomplished with relatively easer, however, making level 6 shredding more highly accessible than one might imagine. As a matter of fact, level 6 shredding should be able to be conducted on an industrial office shredder, an industrial shredder machine that can handle large quantities of shredding, which of course makes it ideal for just about any sizable office location. A high capacity paper shredder can also be ideal for level 6 shredding.
And level 6 shredding can be important not just when it comes to the use of a commercial paper shredder, but for personal shredding purposes as well. After all, the victims of identity fraud are individual people, and individual people taking the time to partake in level 6 shredding can help to prevent this in quite a significant way. And preventing identity fraud is hugely important, as far too many people don’t even notice at first that it has happened to them. In fact, recently gathered data actually shows that very nearly one quarter of all identity fraud victims (around 24% of them, to be just a little bit more specific) actually discovered what had happened by sheer accident, meaning that a good deal of damage had likely already been done.
And level 6 shredding, important as it is, is certainly not the only step that should be taken to improve security and reduce overall chances of identity fraud here in the United States. Improving online security is still a must, even though most identity theft still happens thorough hard copies of paper documents. Making passwords difficult to detect and never leaving yourself signed in to various accounts can be hugely beneficial to your overall online security, as can always keeping a close eye on your accounts.
