CyberSecurity Starts In Your Trash
Your Identity
Identity: noun. iden·ti·ty | \ ī-ˈden-tə-tē
The qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person. Your identity is who you are.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifiable information (PII), without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. Identity Theft is relatively new and one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. In a 2019 report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that 10% of persons age 16 and older reported that they had been victims of identity theft during the prior 12 months. Total losses across all incidents of identity theft totaled $17.5 billion in the United States in 2016.
Your Identity Lives In Your Trash Can
Most everything you would need to know to steal someone’s identity can usually be found in their trash can. You roll it out to the curb on trash day and walk away. In it, a treasure trove of information about the people in your home. Some of the various data that gets put into trash and recycling bins includes:
Social security information
Bank statements
Credit card information
Copies of drivers licenses
Copies of passports
Credit applications
Mortgage statements
Insurance policy information
Copies of vehicle registration
Phone records
Utility bills
Medical records
Shopping receipts
And a lot more!
These documents all contain PII. With the aggregated PII found on these documents, bad guys can wreak havoc on your finances and take over your life.
Your Trash Is (Usually) Not Your Own
Once the garbage can is at the curb, it is usually not a crime for someone to open it up and go through it. A United States Supreme Court Decision in 1988, California vs Greenwood, found that garbage was public domain when left in the ‘outside curtilage’ of a home or property, i.e., meaning that those placing trash by the curb have no reasonable expectation of privacy.
Some jurisdictions have passed ordinances that make going through your trash illegal, but most have not. In most places, bad guys can go through your trash and there isn’t a lot you can do about it. While you may not be able to stop the criminals from going through your trash, you can stop them from finding anything of value.
Everything a bad guy needs to take over your life is placed in your trash can and set out for the world to sort through every week. All you need to do to prevent this is to stop throwing that stuff away, but that’s not practical. Recycling is no help in this situation. That bin is usually sitting right beside the trash can and bad guys are not discerning when they pick through your waste. They snap on a pair of rubber gloves and go through all of it. So what can you do?
First, Shed The Paper
Go paperless everywhere possible. Eliminating paper statements from your household is good for the environment and can be much more secure. Choose digital delivery for your documents for every account that supports it. However, that will mean you need to make sure that where and how you store your digital documents is secure. Separate topic… Securing your digital life!
Then, Shred The Paper
Then, shred everything else. That means everything! If you are throwing away any paper that contains personal information, shred it. You have no control over the junk mail you get in your mailbox. Those credit offers that you throw away unopened often contain valuable personal information, including blank checks that anyone who picks them up can write! Shred them!
If you don’t already have one, buy a heavy-duty, cross-cut shredder that can shred multiple sheets of paper at once as well as shred credit cards. You’re going to be shredding a lot, so get a good one. If you are shredding personal documents, look for a unit that meets the Shredder Level P4 standard. If you shred sensitive corporate documents in your home office, you should choose the Level P5 or P6 standard. Your employer should provide direction in that situation. Level P1 - P2 shredders cut long strips, not confetti. Documents from these types of shredders have been famously (or infamously) ‘unshredded’ and should be avoided for sensitive data. A Level P3 shredder cuts strips, but the strips are only 2mm (.07”) wide and can be used for sensitive data, but getting a crosscut shredder (Level P4 and higher) is generally no more expensive and adds an extra measure of security.
To save some money, you may consider tearing documents into little pieces by hand. You may do a few pages like that, but with the amount of paper that the average family goes through, you will stay busy. Also, it is typically fairly easy to piece uniquely shaped pieces of paper back together. It is only at best, a 50 piece jigsaw puzzle. The average bad guy can piece that back together in minutes.
The Bottom Line
Don’t put anything in your trash can or recycling bin that you would hand out on the street corner to a stranger. Even if a bad guy doesn’t dive in your bin, trash has been known to get spilled as it is dumped into the truck, or blow out on its way to the landfill or recycling center. The one piece that flies out might be the one document you most want to keep private. Eliminate paper wherever possible, then shred everything that contains PII.
Call In The Professionals
TriStar Bin Cleaning can’t prevent bin divers, but we do offer solutions to clean, sanitize and disinfect your garbage cans and recycling bins. Our custom-built bin cleaning truck accomplishes a level of safety in just seconds that is simply not possible when using household cleaners and disinfectants.
Our environmentally friendly process safely kills more than 99.999% of the harmful germs and bacteria living in your garbage cans without using hazardous cleaning agents.
TriStar Bin Cleaning offers cleaning options to fit every schedule and every budget. For more information on TriStar Bin Cleaning's services, please visit the How it Works page. To make sure your bins are clean & safe, Book Now!
