How Document Destruction Can Help Against Identity Theft

It seems that every time you pick up a newspaper these days there's a scare story about identity theft.If someone isn't trying to hack into your online bank account from the other side of the world or clone your credit card whenever you use a hole in the wall then there's always some bright spark around to leave a laptop in the back of a taxi that contains yours, and millions of other people's, personal details.It's no wonder then that people are considering personal document destruction as a way to safeguard their identity and cut down the risk of them being the victim of the new type of crime.

The market that has grown around this worrying trend is now very profitable with companies offering services as wide ranging as computer hard drive back up, encrypting data and document destruction.It could be called paranoia but to many it is just a worthwhile and intelligent response to a very real threat.With examples of this new type of cyber crime on the increase it looks like the industry aiming to counteract and stop it is also likely to grow.

For an individual the threat of identity theft, or ghosting as it has become known, is very real.It's not just the elderly or vulnerable who are targeted, increasingly the stories we hear are of supposedly tech-savvy people being duped.People who think they'd spot a scam a mile off are now just as at risk as any other group.There are now several products on the market which can help to give a person piece of mind when they are using credit cards, computers or dealing with paperwork.

Data protection doesn't just relate to big business.We all have important personal data stored on our computer even if we're not aware of it.Computers store web pages we have visited, the pages it stores can contain personal data like addresses, telephone numbers, passwords and numerous other things that a cyber criminal might be able to use.Thankfully there are now some very good software packages that can help protect this data.Some is aimed at the single user home computers; some is aimed at larger companies.It all serves the same purpose which is to protect your data.

Used in conjunction with some simple measure that you can carry out yourself, installing software to protect your data when online, can be very effective.The advice is to have different passwords for different sites and different purposes.The thought being that if everything is the same then everything is at risk; think of it as damage limitation.It is also recommended you never give out your personal details online; in chat-rooms or social networking sites.No matter how trivial it may seem you'd be surprised how easy it is to be fooled into giving criminals enough information for you to be at risk.

Once you've taken precautions to protect yourself 'virtually' it's time to protect your printed documents.Document destruction has become popular on the back of lots of well publicized cases where people's identities have been stolen by people getting hold of old bills, bank statements and letters from bins.It's no longer enough to discard your old paperwork, you must now dispose of it in way that means it cannot be used to learn anything about you.On the back of this shredding and paper shredders have become a familiar sight in homes and offices around the world.

Shredders are now relatively inexpensive and provide piece of mind when it comes to identity theft.Many companies also offer a large scale document destruction services to big businesses whose employees are not only prone to identity theft but are prone to attack on a much larger scale; corporate crime on a large scale is now a very real threat.

About the Author

Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the security industry.

Find out more about document destruction and online security.

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A Guide through the Health and Safety Passports Maze

I need to see your safety passport before you can come on site. Literally hundreds of thousands of people hear that phrase or something like it everyday in the UK and yet Safety Passports can seem like a black art to some. What are they? Where do I get one and most importantly which one do I get? They are the dilemmas that most people are faced with.

Well, let me see if I can demystify the Health and Safety Passports industry a little for you.

In the UK there are three main players, each having issued over six figures worth of Safety Passports to individual contractors.
- The client Contractor National Safety Group CCNSG (also known as SCATS)
- The Construction Skills Certification Scheme - CSCS Card
- The Safety Pass Alliance (SPA)(also known as the Epic card, the UKPIA card, the Food card and The Passport to Safety)

So do I need more than one passport?
The problem is that it is down to the Client as to which particular passport scheme they implement on their site. Some passports can be interchangeable with a client like the CCNSG and SPA, the one that is least interchangeable is the CSCS card, but it is always worth checking with the client first.

CCNSG

The CCNSG which was the original safety passport of them all tends to be used most in the Power Generation Industries, the steel, oil, gas, and chemicals industries. It is a generic scheme, which is not industry specific and is therefore open to clients outside of the engineering construction industry.
The Passport is obtained after taking two days basic generic health and safety training and passing a multi choice test.

CSCS Card

The CSCS card is primarily used in the construction industry. - There is no required training

To obtain a CSCS card workers are required to have completed a 45-minute multiple-choice test on health and safety in construction. It is a screen-based test and there are a maximum of 40 questions to answer. Workers can choose to attend a construction health and safety awareness course beforehand.

SPA Passport

SPA have a modular passport which has been developed with numerous industry sectors, including Food & Drink, Quarry, Petrol Retail, General Manufacturing, Building Maintenance, Pharma, Construction, Ports, Logistics, Landfill and others.

The passport is usually two days training. The first day is The Core Day which provides generic Health & Safety training. The second day is an industry specific day that addresses the particular safety needs of that sector. A delegates understanding is assessed by multiple choice

So what is the Passport

As evidence that the contractors have successfully completed the training, contractors are generally issued with a plasticised photographic pass. This enables the client to restrict entry to those who can prove they have undergone the training by producing their individual passport on site arrival.

One other question I get asked all the time is - So do they work ?

It has always been difficult to quantify the results of implementing a Safety Passport scheme on site, but over the past couple of years the SPA have been publishing results from clients. The full articles can be found on the SPA website but here are a few snippets from articles below

The introduction of the safety passport at Nestle UK was part of a review and tightening of all our own contractor management safety procedures. This has resulted in a reduction of contractor accident statistics by 68 per cent over the last two years.

Metronet using the SPA Underground Railway Passport as part of the Health and Safety Initiative led to a 75 per cent reduction in accident statistics in only 18 months.

Leicester City Council - The first local authority in England to introduce the SPA Building Maintenance safety passport scheme for its housing maintenance operatives has seen a 32 per cent drop in its accident rates in the last three years.

So there we have it, we train literally thousands of contractors a year and I hope that I have managed to clear up some of the common questions that we get asked by those people every day of the week


About the Author

Kerry Jones is the MD of GSS Training Limited.

From NLP to Health Safety Passports GSS Training can help you with all your training needs.

Find out more at www.gsstraining.co.uk

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