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Confidential Police Documents Found In Confetti At Macy's Parade
cstacy writes "The Nassau County (New York) Police Department is 'very concerned' about reports that shreds of police documents (with social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, license plate numbers, incident reports, and more) rained down as confetti in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The documents also unveiled the identities of undercover officers, including their SSNs and bank information, according to WPIX-TV. Macy's has no idea how this happened, as they use commercial, colored confetti, not shredded paper."
Throw crap all over to celebrate what.... yay we're job creators! someone has to pick all this shit up!
First of all, I believe Macy's on this. Why would you try to save a few bucks by using recycled documents? They're not a pet store. Secondly, confetti is usually pretty small, so who was walking around piecing tiny bits of paper together in the middle of the parade? I guess it's possible but the whole thing just smells like your standard internet myth.
I think you'd need to ensure your sensitive documents were pulped, rather than simply shredded. Much harder to piece together paper machet'
It's a question of volume. Once you start shoving serious quantities of paper, you should really look into sending all your printers and copiers to law school, and retooling the UIs and print drivers so that all printing automatically takes place in the context of attorney-client privilege.
Thanks to the magic of inexpensive ethernet-attached printers and online degree mills, all the printers that the C-levels and above use are doctors as well as lawyers, and we imported a HIPPApotamus to guard the filing cabinets. It doesn't get more secure than that!
Cross Shredder
Is that a roll of dimes in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
Not saying there's any validity to this story (it sounds like BS to me) but you can get shredders that shred to various standards. Fellowes sells shredders that are strip cut, cross cut, and micro cut (more or less makes powder). The reason is because the more intense the cut, the less amount of paper a given size of motor can handle. For example take three of their shredders, all with the same basic build and model number. The strip cut version can do 21 sheets at a time, the cross cut 14, the micro cut 10. Same motor, same general construction, only difference is the blade assembly.
It has nothing to do with size either. You can find large ones that are strip cut. Fellowes has a 35 sheet strip cut commercial model they sell (costs about $4k). The more you want the paper cut up, the more blades you have to have, thus the more resistance, thus the less it can handle at once.
As such businesses may choose the higher capacity, but less secure, shredders for some documents. They also cost less to buy.
That's also why micro cut shredders have never become all that popular. Their cost goes up again because of the more blades and they can't handle a lot at once.
Police in my state got into trouble once for printing out license and registration data and using the printouts as scrap paper in their front office, so if they had to write something down for a member of the public they might get somebody else's details on the back.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
It is surprisingly difficult to burn large quantities of office-quality paper and ensure that nothing is left except ashes.
Which is why such documents are shredded and then incinerated. I used to work for a bank, there's nothing difficult about it at all. The only thing people should take away from this article is that shredding documents really doesn't do much (if anything) to keep your data private.
...They should spend a few more dollars and get a shredder that can reduce their paper to dust or at least small bits instead of long strips.
You must be one of those tax-and-spend liberals. The solution is to shutdown the police department, reduce firearm regulations, and allow the invisible hand of the free market to decide who can get away with crime.