The importance of document shredding for security reasons can’t be overstated. Even in today’s mostly digital age, hard copies are still a necessary requirement for various regulatory bodies. For instance, in the financial planning and services world, FINRA and the SEC require certain documents to be held for a particular amount of time. This goes likewise in the practice of law in many areas, including estate planning, medical malpractice, and many other areas of the law. However, some documents must be destroyed and that’s where shredding becomes a necessity.

The importance of document shredding is mostly due to security. For example, the United States Federal Bureau of investigation is currently wanting homeowners against a new phenomenon that’s gained a lot of traction during the covid shutdowns, which is home title theft. Although these documents are recorded and held in physical locations, they are also likewise showing up online. Criminals only need a few key pieces of information in order to obtain these legal documents, and change the ownership, in order to steal the title.

Meanwhile, in other industries like financial services and law, nefarious characters are able to carry out widespread identity theft by simply obtaining a few documents from public places, such as trash cans and dumpsters. With just a few key pieces of data, criminals are able to steal identities, and/or obtain unlawful access to bank, debit, and credit card accounts. These are just a few of the reasons that document shredding is so important for security reasons, because they keep both businesses and their consumers safe from criminal activity.