There are laws and regulations in place that require certain precaution to take place in regards to sensitive information. Companies are supposed to follow these laws-even though we know that some don't and they have turned into huge scandals. Some companies decide on alternative methods for getting rid of this information, but most of the time it doesn't work appropriately. Here are some things to keep in mind when you are deciding how to deal with the risk management issue.

• Every single business has information that needs to be destroyed. It is just the truth of the matter. Confidential information can come in many different forms, including price lists, financial information, emails, and company statistics. Competitors are always looking for a heads up on the competition. Most companies will take whatever information they can't get their hands on-whether that is ethical or not. But it is also important to protect your employees' and client's information. If you don't, you will have a big lawsuit on your hands.

• Destroying this information should not be sporadic; it needs to be on a schedule. This is to ensure that things are getting taken care of when they need to be. A retention schedule should be in place for each type of document. It will vary with different kinds of information; so keep that in mind. This is where it get tricky though. You will need to keep documents and information for as long as you need it (within reason). If you are called to go to court, you wouldn't have wanted to destroy all the things you need. But then again, you could go to court for not destroying certain types of information. Once you've found that system that works, you're good to go.

• Don't just recycle. Many companies believe that just by recycling the sensitive information, they are good to go. This is not the case. The workers are usually unscreened and the recycling facilities insecure for that type of information.