More and more, cities and towns across the country are holding “shredding it” days where residents can bring boxes of old records and files to be professionally shredded at little or no cost. This is a great service and an important one, since “dumpster diving” is a popular way for identity thieves to get a hold of our credit card, social security or bank account numbers and create all kinds of potential problems for us.
As we all know, identity theft is a growing problem. According to a study by Javelin Strategy & Research Center, there were nearly 10 million victims of identity theft in 2008, a 22% increase from the previous year. Also, the study points out that stolen wallets and physical documents accounted for 43% of all identity theft.
While shredding paper files is a good habit for all of us to get into, all too often we overlook another source of sensitive files and personally identifiable information: our computers. Most people aren’t aware that Windows does not actually remove a file when we click Delete, nor are files really erased when we “empty” the Recycle Bin. Instead, Windows simply removes any reference to the file, making it invisible to us in Windows Explorer. In fact, there are a number of software programs on the market that will help you restore your deleted files.
So, if Windows doesn’t really delete your files, and software is available that lets anyone restore the files, how can you keep your sensitive files from falling into the wrong hands? Well, our SensiGuard file encryption software has a nifty feature called the File Shredder. Just like every other part of SensiGuard, the file shredder is super easy to use: just click any file, anywhere on your PC or flash drive and click Shred. The software will encrypt, then overwrite the files several times, permanently deleting it so it can never be recovered.
Here’s a quick video to show you how easy it is to shred files with SensiGuard.
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