Stories of Insufficient and Incomplete Shredding

Presently, many organisations no longer handle their own document shredding due to the unreliability of common office paper shredders. Instead of risking having their shredding documents stolen and reconstructed, making all kinds of sensitive and private information available, many organisations choose to outsource this function to document shredding services.

There were few incidences in history that can bring about to this major change in the way organisations go about with document shredding.

 

Back in November 1979, 52 US citizens were taken hostage after a group of 300 to 500 angry students took over the US Embassy in Iran. Although the student's initial plan was to hold the hostages for less than a week, the hostages were only released after 444 days later (20th January, 1981). The reason for this is simply 'insufficient document shredding'!

Shortly after taking over the building, radical revolutionary students (who were convinced that the embassy was a centre of opposition to the new government after the downfall of the Shah of Iran) reconstructed and displayed confidential documents that US diplomats and admin personnel had frantically shredded as they were being invaded. This rushed document shredding job proved disastrous, as it helped strengthen radical Iranian claims.

 

The 2001 Enron accountancy scandal was another major incident in history that resulted in a catastrophic outcome as a result of inadequate document shredding. Much of the incriminating evidence in the Enron accountancy scandal was gathered from the shredded documents. We are left wondering as to how could this be possible? These documents were definitely shredded but the shredded documents were easily reassembled as the documents were not fed through the shredder properly (it was parallel rather than the perpendicular to the shredder blades).

Have we learnt anything from history? Since these incidences of major breaches in security, there is now a high demand for more secure methods of sensitive documents such as onsite shredding whereby the shredded materials on board the mobile shredding truck are compacted and mixed with other materials in large volumes, making it virtually unidentifiable and not easily reconstructed. Therefore, be careful and take necessary steps when dealing with document shredding. Learn from past mistakes as a famous quote once said; " Who controls the past controls the future..."