Secure data destruction service commonly provides clients with containers to accumulate paper or other media prior to destruction. And, while it is true that the containers are designed...

First of all, it is important to remember that i-SIGMA is a non-profit trade association with a mission to improve market conditions for all its members, and the...

Gone—for now anyway—are the days when finding and retaining good employees could be taken for granted. The recent i-SIGMA member survey, along with many conversations with members on what to...

The eagerly awaited i-SIGMA Compliance Monitoring Service has arrived. Starting immediately, many service providers will use it, and soon clients around the world will begin seeing promotions encouraging...

It is understandable that most organizations today want to do the right thing when destroying discarded media on which is recorded personal and competitive information. And, in this...

Guest Article By: Joshua D. Hundeby-DeVries, CSDS Editor’s Note: In light of current market dynamics, where many clients now find their employees working from home, it seems appropriate...

(This blog is provided for perspective only and not to be taken as legal advice) As I often remind service providers, though i-SIGMA certifications (NAID AAA/PRISM Privacy+) require...

Author's Note: In writing this, I am acutely aware that many i-SIGMA members find themselves at this time having trouble finding good employees. Despite that fact, or maybe...

It’s happened to many data destruction service providers and to those it hasn’t happened yet, it will at some point. It looks like this: You have been destroying...

For all the bad things about the pandemic shutdown, one thing is certain; it has forced you to reduce your operations down to the basics. You had no...

I was recently asked if there was any information on how certain categories of business… say financial … might be generating more business for i-SIGMA members than another...

There’s been a lot made of the fact that a considerable portion of the workforce is working from home. The conversation in the industry has focused largely on...

As many are now aware, Morgan Stanley recently issued a data breach notification, after learning that IT assets disposed of four years ago may not have been properly...

First, I would like to commend Morgan Stanley. They somehow learned IT assets disposed of four years ago may not have been properly wiped by the vendor they...

Things are tough. It perfectly understandable that you, your staff, and your customers are unsettled. It’s going to be that way for a while. As it stands, there’s...

In March, i-SIGMA announced changes to PRISM Privacy+ Certification making it not only more affordable but also a much stronger sales tool. March is also when COVID-19 made...

The premise of my last blog was that there is a big benefit to developing your revenue model based on data security services (i.e., consistent revenue). I explained...

While the downturn in prices of recycled materials affects all information destruction companies, some are feeling them more than others. Service providers – both on the electronics side...

Planning, training, and mock disaster exercises - Three key components of an effective disaster plan.  Regardless of the size of a RIM provider or company service level, the...

By Bob Johnson Over the past decades, NAID members have come to know me for trumpeting the latest data protection regulations and for expounding on their various threats...

In a previous PRISM International blog, there was a discussion related to RIM providers responding to issues of abandoned records within a record center.  As a follow-up to...

Who pays the bill when the company declares bankruptcy? When a practitioner retires and/or meets an untimely death–who pays the RIM service invoice?  What about the outstanding invoices...

It is commonly understood that professional services command significant economic advantage over services requiring no perceived expertise.  For most, medical doctors come to mind, and even within their...

Kelly Martínez, NAID Director of Marketing & Communications I still consider myself new to the association. Next month will mark my one year anniversary. And while I come...

By Bob Johnson There is a good reason Chapter 7: Information Disposition Policies and Procedures is dedicate strictly to advising data controllers on how to create their internal...

Bob Johnson, NAID CEO This is the third installment in my blog series on using the Information Disposition textbook to overcome the most costly customer misconceptions. It makes...

Bob Johnson, NAID CEO In my last blog, Selling Information Disposition by the Book (vol. 1), the first in this series, I talked a bit about the mechanics of...

Bob Johnson, NAID CEO The new Information Disposition textbook (Information Disposition: A Practical Guide to the Secure, Compliant Disposal of Records, Media and IT Assets) is an amazing tool for...

Bob Johnson, NAID CEO When NAID embarked on the Downstream Data Coverage insurance pathway, it did so primarily because the professional liability coverages members were purchasing did not protect them...

Kelly Martínez, NAID Director of Marketing & Communications In case you missed this message in the last edition of the NAIDnews… As the new Director of Marketing &...

When we first spoke with underwriters about creating a professional liability policy to correct the problems with existing coverages, they freely admitted that covering data protection risks was...

By: Bob Johnson, NAID CEO It’s rarely a good way to start an article, but I would be remiss if I did not begin with a disclaimer.  My...

By: Bob Johnson, NAID CEO As the secure destruction industry gets ready for another successful NAID Conference - its 22nd, it occurred to me that the thousands of...

By: Bob Johnson, NAID CEO This is the second of three articles on current aspects of the secure destruction market we face going into this New Year. The...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO In the book “Powerful Times” by Eamonn Kelly (Wharton School Publishing), the author describes our era as one of great paradoxes; great wealth-creation...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO From the dawn of sales, sales professionals have struggled with the task of getting to the decision maker. It’s frustrating to discuss the...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Unfortunately, some clients have a troublesome and risky perspective on their data destruction requirements. Namely, they think they already know all they need...

By Amy Larrimore, Chief Executive Officer of The Gamechanger [caption id="attachment_1027" align="alignright" width="221"] Business man in a position ready to race at the office[/caption] If you wanted to...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Whose fault is it if a competitor is screwing up the marketplace with low pricing? Who’s to blame if a customer doesn’t care...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Last year I saw a headline reading, “Study shows employees and contractors are biggest cause of breaches.” My first reaction was “that’s interesting.”...

By Heather Shimala, Document Recovery Account Manager “Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.” - Gen. George...

By Joe Harford, founder of Reclamere All machines need some sort of oil to run. This is no different when it comes to the machine that produces revenue...

By Tom Dumez, President of Prime Compliance We have all read the stories: a large retail store has a data breach, a large home improvement store has a...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO A "destroy all" data disposal strategy is the only safe and reasonable option. For instance, at our organization, I have no control over our firewall. Emails are...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO In any service industry, there is the temptation to embellish, a.k.a., “marketing puffery.” To some degree, I think we forgive it because it...

By Ray Barry, Chief Shreducation and Member Relations Officer In the information management and destruction industries, relationships rule the sales process. You get a new client as soon...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Every data protection law in the world holds clients responsible for making sure their third party data processors meet regulatory requirements and security...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Athletes, especially professional athletes, provide one of the most obvious examples of human beings who have to continually focus on improving their performances....

By Ray Barry, NAID Deputy Executive Director The most important quality that top sales professionals and business owners possess is, without a doubt, a positive attitude. I have...

By Holly Vandervort, NAID Chief Compliance Officer One of the more game-changing additions to the NAID AAA Certification Program in 2014 was the requirement for certified companies to...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO As I write this, I’m at the Los Angeles Shred School workshop. At the front of the room Ray Barry is teaching 35 industry professionals...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO In my most recent SDB magazine column, I ruminate on the low barrier to entry in the secure destruction industry. I encourage you to...

By Ray Barry, NAID Deputy Executive Director One of the most challenging things in developing new business is identifying the stage of buying in which your prospect is...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO I’ve been a bit preoccupied with the early signs of the consequences of data breaches entering a new era. As I have written, when...

By Ray Barry, NAID Deputy Executive Director The summer has arrived here in beautiful South Carolina and it’s time for baseball! If I am not teaching companies how...

By Ray Barry, NAID Deputy Executive Director Whether you are a sales professional, business owner, or you wear many hats, your typical day is most likely hectic and...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO My first reaction was, “WOW!” My second reaction was, “It’s about time.” My third reaction was, “This is going to change everything.” I...

By Tom Adams, Coach and Adviser It’s an important goal for almost every salesperson: get access to senior executives in prospective client companies — the C-Level decision makers...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO It’s the universal lament of the secure data destruction vendor heard from New Hampshire to Hong Kong: “The customer only cares about price!”...

Ray Barry, Chief Shreducation and Member Relations Officer “The main work of a trial attorney is to make the jury like his or her client.” – Robert Cialdini,...

By Ray Barry, NAID Chief Shreducation and Member Relations Officer As we begin a New Year, all of us look at the previous year and think of what...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO From the beginning, NAID has held the position that a fully informed customer is the best strategy for improving conditions for reputable secure...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Reading Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” became popular in business management circles in the 1990s. You still hear it referenced today, though...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO My commute from home to the NAID headquarters office is an enviable three miles and usually takes less than seven minutes. For the...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO In Tuesday’s NAIDnotes post, I tried to delineate the evolution, relative merits and divergent perspectives on shred day events. Today, I’d like to...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Free shred days have become a polarizing issue in the secure destruction arena. For anyone outside the secure destruction industry, these are events,...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO As I set out to write this blog, as I have done virtually every Tuesday and Thursday for the last six months or...

By Angie Singer Keating, Reclamere CEO As professionals in the secure destruction business, we must project an image that conveys trust and expertise at all times. While we...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Optimism is returning, and rightfully so! We are surrounded by signs that the economies of the world have turned the corner. Construction is...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot written about how the secure destruction industry has been changing, including how...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Maybe I am wrong, but I think few people would argue they are running their businesses (or doing their jobs) as well as...

By Joe Calloway, Author of “A Category of One” Like just about every other business in the world, the secure records destruction industry has and is experiencing unprecedented...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO I have often related the story of having traveled all the way to Warsaw, Poland to address a business group, only to be...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Last year the majority of NAID conference attendees overlooked what turned out to be one of the best sessions at the event. To...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO As long as history has been recorded, economic and social worrywarts have been predicting social and economic collapse. Recently, I read an article...

By Gary Dickson, Q.C., Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner In recent years we have had a number of serious privacy breaches in Saskatchewan. Given the frequency and size...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO I’ve been thinking a lot about how to follow up last Tuesday’s blog. To refresh your memory, I discussed how those who use...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO I grew up loving the game of chess. My grandfather taught me how to play. [caption id="attachment_1301" align="alignleft" width="300"] Chess pieces on chessboard...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO First of all, I want to thank Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, for acting as NAIDnotes’ guest blogger this past...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO Universally, sales and marketing experts encourage those representing a business to actively seek public speaking engagements. They rightly point out that such educational...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO A few years back I read a book that talked about how some companies get in “the zone.” Being in “the zone” meant...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO If your secure destruction company is relying strictly on cold calling prospects for sales, you’re going to have a rough time growing your...

By Bob Johnson, NAID CEO I often hear from NAID members that increasing prices is "impossible." However, price increases are not only possible, they are a necessary part...