Identity theft is, as the name suggests, the theft of another person’s identity for financial or other gain. The leading type of identity theft is credit card identity theft, which happens when some one expropriates another person’s credit card number and information in order to make unauthorized purchases. This is a very serious problem that has caused great financial turmoil for countless victims who have had their credit accounts overspent by identity thieves. Other common forms of identity theft include driver’s license and Social Security number identity theft. Another increasingly prevalent form of identity theft is medical identity theft, the theft of someone’s medical identity through physician’s records for the purpose of obtaining health insurance.

The advent of electronics records management has made maintaining an appropriate level of security for records more difficult. According to records management experts, it is much harder to make sure that the structure, context and content of records is kept intact and protected when the records are not in a hardcopy format. In 2009, more than 200 million data files were compromised by hackers. Hacking for profit is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar business world wide, adding to legitimate businesses costs because of losses and increased costs with regard to security.

One major problem in records management is the low priority level it is given in many organizations. Many companies and organizations give their least skilled and lowest paid workers records management duties. This practice has come back to haunt many of these organizations in embarrassingly public security breaches. For instance, in 200x, LexisNexis had to contact more than 32,000 customers and inform them that criminals had used the company’s information retrieval services to commit identity theft. If more priority had been assigned to reviewing and securing records, this costly — in both money and prestige — breach may not have occurred.

How you can secure your organization’s records

To increase the security of your electronic records protocols, keep these precepts in mind when implementing or changing a plan:

• Make sure your electronic records management policies incorporate dynamic encryption. By constantly changing your encryption keys, you stay one (or hopefully several) steps ahead of hackers.
• Fragmentation is another key element of providing security to your electronic records. Each data component should be split up into pieces and stored in multiple databases in a randomized order. Because there’s no central database, your records are secure. Adding to the security is the fact that even if someone stole all of the databases, the data within would be incoherent.
• You can also add to the security of your electronic records by maintaining these fragmented databases on a number of different networks. This reduces the chance of a security breach and also makes hackers work much harder and longer to crack your network, making it more likely that they’ll get caught.
• Compartmentalization of records is another key element of electronic records management security. By requiring that your database functions must be accessed from several authorized points, this gives protection to each function of your records and also makes it likely that unauthorized attempts to gain access will be noticed.
• Setting multiple challenge points that require more than one password or entrance criteria, such as biometrics, helps you ensure that the person accessing your data is actually who they’re claiming to be. It’s also advisable to set up defragmentation and decryption control points in your electronic records management program. By limiting points where your data can be decrypted, you reduce the number of vulnerable spots in your electronic records management system.
• Another key aspect of electronic records security is having a real time access denial. This is essentially a system that freezes access to the system if a party unsuccessfully attempts to access it more than a set number of times during a time period. This reduces a hacker’s opportunity to get access to your system.
• Lastly, having a reliable system for the destruction of electronic records is key to preserving sensitive information. Make sure the system you use eliminates the records so they can’t be dredged up from discarded media storage or other equipment.

By following these precepts, you can increase the security of your electronic records and reduce the chance that your organization endures a costly loss as a result of hacking or identity theft.

Records management is essentially the creation, maintenance and retention of data by organizations. Records management is a key operation in any business or organization, and in some cases, is subject to legal and regulatory requirements.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s main intent was to set better standards for U.S. public companies, as well as management and public accounting companies. Privately held companies are not subject to SOX. The act includes 11 titles which set regulations for a number of functions, including corporate board responsibilities and accounting practices.  While passed in 2002, it was not until 2005 that most of the components of the act were implemented.

Proponents of the act say it has strengthened public accounting and increased investor confidence in the integrity of corporate accounting practices. The act was proposed in response to the Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting scandals of the early 2000′s. Critics of the act argue that it has greatly increased the cost of doing business in America as a public company, pointing to a decrease in private companies going public in the years after SOX’s passage. To these critics, SOX has put American companies at a major competitive disadvantage in relation to foreign firms who are not subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

While the overall thrust of SOX is to better regulate corporate accounting, the act also has significant impact on records management. According to the act, all business records, including electronic records and messages must be preserved for at least five years. The act has some pretty sharp penalties for non-compliance, including fines and imprisonment. The act defines records as business records and communications, including electronic communication such as e-mail.

The provisions of SOX relating to records management have created some big responsibilities — and big costs — for public companies. According to the law firm Foley and Lardner, SOX has increased the cost of being a public company by about 130 percent. For companies who deal primarily with electronic records, specialized systems for handing these records are necessary. Many companies have hired “compliance officers” just for this purpose alone.

Enterprise Record Management

Dealing efficiently and effectively with the electronic records management aspect of SOX can help companies mitigate the costs involved with complying with the act, and avoid possible penalties involved with non-compliance. One good solution is an Enterprise record management system. ERM is essentially the tools and technologies used in the storage and retention of records.

When implementing an ERM program, companies must consider a number of key factors including size, storage media, security and longevity. Making the right choices with regard to these factors can help companies avoid big headaches and fines later.

How large your ERM system needs to be depends on the size of your company and how many and what kind of transactions it makes. Nevertheless, your ERM needs are certain to require large amounts of data storage because of the lengthy periods SOX requires for records retention. When choosing an ERM system, it’s important to make sure it has plenty of storage — and then add some more.

Picking the right media format is also important. Under SOX, audits of records are more likely, so having your records in a format that’s well-organized and easily accessible is important. The media storage industry is undergoing frequent changes, so it’s important to choose storage products that are likely to be easy to maintain and service well into the future.

Your data must also be secure. Your organization must be able to not only provide the information to auditors or federal investigators, you must also be able to prove that the records are accurate and tamper-proof. WORM media is a good program that uses a secure index and audit log to protect the security of your records. There are also several other good products on the market for these puorposes.

Complying with the retention requirement of SOX may be the most difficult aspect of the records management requirements of the act. Records stored in your system need to be organized and tagged with a specific retention period.

SOX is here and it’s highly unlikely that the act will be repealed any time in the near future. Dealing with the records management responsibilities enacted by SOX can be done in an efficient manner that reduces the cost of SOX compliance to your firm.

Throughout your day at work, you will be producing all sorts of paperwork.  You’ll write up paperwork for a new customer, or perhaps a recent for a company purchase.  With all of this paperwork, you need a way to keep track of it all.

In the past, some companies have gone through their time without worrying about this.  While it saves them the trouble at the time, they find that it actually hurts their business in the end when they don’t keep good records.  Keeping track of records is all a part of good business.  This is called records management, and you should be sure to keep track of it if you want to keep everything in your business on the up and up.

As mentioned above, you will encounter all sorts of records throughout the day.  Some of the most common are the personnel files that you have for all of your employees.  If you want to create legal records management, you will need to store all of the paperwork involved with each person.  This starts at the time of hire.  You should keep their application on file so that you know who you are talking about and so you can be sure that they followed all the rules in the application and didn’t lie.  Also, when you first hire someone, you have them fill out a lot of paperwork.  It is a good idea to store all of this as well.

As time goes on, you will still be adding more and more records to your employees’ files.  Keep all of the time records there.  Every time your employee works, record it and keep it in your storage.  This way, if your employee disputes their pay, you can prove them wrong with the time stamps that you saved.  You should also keep any communications with the employee as well.  If you have to reprimand them for something, keep this paperwork.  This is also the case if they get a raise as well.  As you can see, not all of the paperwork you keep will be negative.  This is all important when it comes to legal records management.

Records manage can seem a bit complicated at first.  In reality, it isn’t.  All you need to do is make sure that you have adequate storage for the paperwork and records.  Many companies use standard filing cabinets for this.  While this is a classic method of records management, there are some downsides to this.  It can often be hard to find what you need when you have to go through dozens of filing cabinets.  Even if everything is alphabetical, it can get misfiled.  Because of this, it is often a better solution to use electronic records management for your business instead.  While this is more expensive, it will take up less space.  It will also be easier to search the files for exactly what you need.  If you need a paper version, you can always print off a copy of what you need.

While it can be a bit of a hassle, keeping good records is an important part of running a business.  The better your records management is, the better your business will be.  Some companies even get in big trouble when they don’t keep good records.  Avoid this by finding some way to manage them.  If you don’t have the time to do it yourself, you could hire a company to do it for you.  There are plenty of companies out there that specialize in records management.  Although it costs more, they do provide a good, valuable service.

Running a clinic or hospital can be a lot of work.  You are always spending your time worrying about patients or acquiring more equipment or medication to help with procedures.  What a lot of clinic owners need to spend more time on is records management.  There is a lot that you need to keep track of when you run one of these facilities, especially when you are dealing with people’s health.  If you do run one of these, it is best to learn as much as you can about health records management so that you can take care of any problems as they arise.

All companies and businesses deal with records.  When they have a customer, they write up new records about the person and about what they bought.  They also worry about the records for their employees as well.  although every business deals with records, and it is important for all of them, hospitals and clinics actually need to refer to these records every day.  Normally, if a customer buys something, the receipt goes into the archives and is usually never seen again.  It is only kept in case of an emergency.  With records in a clinic, you are likely to see them over and over again.

The most common records in a clinic or hospital have to do with the patient.  When a new patient comes to the clinic, they fill out beginning paperwork in the waiting room.  This paperwork asks for contact information as well as a detailed history of the health of the patient.  This is then stored with health records management.  Then, these records are changed and modified as the doctor sees the patient.  They take blood pressure and note it in the patient’s chart.  On a future visit, the doctor may need to reference back to that data.  As you can see, records management is very important in this setting.

Since the records are so important, the clinic needs a way of keeping track of them.  For many years, the clinic would just keep a filing cabinet with this information.  They would file patients by name so that they were easier to find.  There are some problems with this method, though.  If a patient gets misfiled, it can be awfully hard to find them again without going through the entire filing system.  It is also a bad idea because, if there is a fire or flood, the records could be lost forever.  Since this is dealing with human health, losing these records could be really detrimental.

Nowadays, more and more clinics are choosing to convert their records system to an electronic format.  This usually consists of a computer software and storage system that can keep track of all the records virtually.  The doctor and nurses would then enter the data that they find, such as blood pressure and weight, into a computer in the examination room.  This is a very good method because it takes up much less space and patients’ records are easier and faster to find.  The downside to this is damage and loss.  Be sure to back up the files often and to keep the duplicate electronic archives in a different location.

Records management is important in every realm of business, but it is actually most important when it comes to serious matters like health and money.  when you run your own clinic or hospital, you need a way to keep track of your patients’ files.  When you do so, you will be sure that you’re running your practice the right way.  You are also ensuring that your patients are getting the most out of their visit.

It is important to comply with all laws, rules and policies when you are starting up your own business.  At first, it may seem like you have everything under control, but it is actually alarming how many rules there are that

newcomers don’t even realize.  If you want to make sure that you are running your company by the letter of the law, then you will need to get to know these laws and policies.  Some of these rules are a lot less known than others.  Did you know that you are required to create and manage detailed records for your business?  This is true.  You not only need to create ample paperwork throughout the years, but you need to have a good way to store it as well.  This is something that the government requires for several reasons.  In order to run your business well, you need to know as much as you can about records management policies.

The term ‘records’ actually applies to a lot of things.  Throughout a typical day, your company will be creating all sorts of paperwork.  This paperwork is kept as records.  For instance, you may have just scored a new client for your service business.  You plan to remodel their bathroom to their specifications.  It is important to keep your estimate for that work in your records system so that it can be referred to at a later date.  There are other kinds of records as well.  You will need a whole file full of paperwork for each and every one of your employees.  They will have paperwork for contact information as well as the legal documents that you had them sign on their first day.  Employee-employer communication should also be kept in the records system.  For instance, if you had to reprimand the employee for something, it is good to keep a copy of it.  You also want to keep all of the person’s time sheets for future reference as well.

Records management is simple.  It is a way to keep track of all of the records that you are producing throughout the day.  You may need to call upon these records and some point, so it is useful to manage these records well.  There are government records management policies because some people aren’t good at keeping them.  If left to their own devices, some companies wouldn’t keep any records at all.  This can end up getting them in trouble in the end.  Above anything else, you should make sure that there is no way for the records to get permanently damaged, whether by electronic file corruption or a fire or flood.  Because of this, you should keep duplicates and backups of everything.  This will be under compliance with the law.

These policies aren’t just there to protect the government.  They are also established in order to protect you as well.  If you keep good records, you will ensure that you have the right evidence just in case of emergency.  For example, if that customer ordering a bathroom remodel complains because they thought they were getting it at a cheaper price, you can get the estimate from the records and prove them wrong.  This is the main reason why records management is so important.

Now you know how complicated starting your own business can be.  Not only do you need to worry about developing a product or service and getting new customers, but you also need to worry about managing your records as well.  Although it may be a hassle, it will definitely be worth the effort in the end because you will have much more protection for your company.

Throughout the course of your common business day, you may generate dozens of records.  For instance, if you start a new project with a customer, you will need to write up a report for this.  But what happens to all of these records?

Most employees don’t have any idea where they go or what happens to them when you are done.  In reality, every business needs to set aside time, money and space in order to keep these records.  This is called records management.  If you work for a company, or own your own, you may come across these records at some point in your business day.  Since you create so many on your own, it is a good idea to learn as much as you can about the subject.

Records can consist of a lot of things.  As mentioned above, any customer communication or projects can constitute a record.  If you provide a service, you will want to keep your customer’s information, as well as any detailed receipts for the work that you do for them.  This way, you can refer back to this paperwork for more information.  There are other things that are records as well.  For instance, important emails can be considered records as well.  If you correspond with customers using an email client, it is important that you save those emails as a way of digital records management.  This way, you can prove your case if there was a miscommunication.

Records don’t always deal with customers though.  You will need to have a lot of records for your employees as well.  For instance, when you first hire someone, you will need to keep their application on file.  You will also need to keep all of the paperwork that the new employee fills out on their first day.  This paperwork is filled out for legal reasons, so you need to keep in on hand just in case anything should happen.  This not only protects you and your business, but it protects your employee as well.  Similar to email correspondence with customers, you should keep any emails that you send from employee to employer.  If aspects such as raises or time off are discussed, then it is a good idea to keep these records.  This is another way to employ digital records management.

Above all else, records management is used to protect your company.  Lawsuits are filed every day against all sorts of different kinds of companies.  There is a good chance that your business will get sued at some point in your career.  When it does, it will help greatly to have all of your detailed records on file.  Because of this, it is important to make sure that all of the records are easily accessible.  If they aren’t, you may not be able to find the records that can help you win the case.  For instance, if a former employee sues because they asked for a raise and never got a response, you can show that you did respond with a good reason through an old email.  As you can see, this kind of records management is really useful.

When you are planning out your company, you need to make sure that you have proper records management.  You now know how important it can be for your business.  if you don’t have good records management, it can cause a lot of terrible consequences in the long run.  If you can’t handle the records upkeep yourself, there are companies out there that are devoted to this kind of service.  While they do cost money, they are well worth the trouble.

Once you start your own business, you may be alarmed at the amount of equipment and software that you need to buy.  In order to successfully run your company, you will need to be able to create records and programs that work

to help you run your business.  This is just a fact of life in the business world, although a lot of newcomers don’t realize this when they start.  You should set aside a chunk of money for software and equipment from the get go so that you are prepared when you business really starts to boom.

One of the most overlooked kinds of software is electronic records management software.  Did you know that records management is one of the most important parts of running any business?  That’s right.  If you want to run your company properly, you are not only going to need to keep good records, but you are going to need to manage them well as well.  This isn’t so bad when you keep in mind that every company needs to do this.  But what are records exactly, and how do they fit into your business?

Records are any of the paperwork that you accumulate throughout the day.  This could be a lot of things.  If you are hiring employees, you will need to keep records of everything having to do with each of them.  You will need to keep their contact information on file even after they stop working for you.  This is to prove that they were there.  You also need to keep all of the time sheets as well for similar reasons.  When you first hire someone, you should keep their application, as well as any of the paperwork that they sign on their first day.  The paperwork from just one employee can really add up.

You’ll also have paperwork for the products and customers of your business as well.  Any time someone buys a product or service, you need to keep the detailed receipt in your records.  This is important because it will save you any hassle in the long run.  If you get sued by a customer for some reason, you will have the records to back up any of your claims.  Companies who don’t keep good records will find that they will rarely win a lawsuit, which costs the company countless amounts of money.

This is where digital records management comes in.  In the past, companies would keep all of this paperwork in filing cabinets.  Paper takes up a lot of space and they would end up with whole rooms dedicated to records management.  Not only does this take up space, but it makes it much harder to find the information that you need.  These files are also subject to certain disasters, such as fire or flood.  A safer way is to use software to keep these records, also known as digital records management.  The downside to this is similar to the paper route.  If something happens to your system, you could lose everything.  Because of this, you need to make sure that you back up your archives often and that you keep duplicates in a different place.

This is just one of the many aspects of business that you are going to need to take care of as a business owner.  Although it may be a hassle to worry about software and equipment now, it will definitely be worth the trouble in the long run.  You can find electronic records management software online or through business catalogs.  Once you receive the software, you should make sure to employ it immediately.

If you are into business, you have likely heard the term ‘records management’ thrown around.  While you may have heard of it, it is likely that you don’t know what it is.  This is because, while it is standard business practice, most

people don’t talk about it.  the subject can be a boring one.  Although this may be the case, it is still a very important and necessary part of running a business.  if you are planning on starting up your own company, be sure and learn as much as you can about records management.  This way, you will be prepared just in case something should happens.

Before we talk about the management of records, you first need to know what records actually are.  Throughout a typical business day, you will likely generate all sorts of paperwork.  This paperwork is considered records that you need to save.  Some of it has to do with your business, and some with your customers.  For example, if you purchase a new desk for your office, you will need to keep this business recent in your files.  You will also need to keep the paperwork if anyone purchases anything from you.  If you sell tennis shoes, you should keep not only the receipt from every transaction, but the paperwork involved in making and distributing that product.

Records also have to do with your employees or personnel.  There is all sorts of paperwork that is generated and filled out for each one of your employees.  You need to keep all of this.  For example, you will have them fill out some forms when they first start out working for you.  These are customary and part of the legal aspects of hiring people.  Keep this in order to keep your business safe.  You will also want to keep any records of the time that the employee works and the time that they take off.  This will help you know what to pay them, and it will also help if there are any disputes about this in the future.

Some types of records only apply to certain kinds of businesses.  For example, clinics and hospitals need to think about health records management.  This includes patient files, which are very important to everyday business in a clinic or hospital.  Service companies, such as contractors, also have different records to keep.  They need all of the estimates that they give customers on file just in case there is a lawsuit.

Records management is the act of keeping all of these records.  It is your responsibility to make sure that the records are kept safe.  They also need to be easy to find.  This is very important because a poorly managed records system may mean that it will take hours or days to find one document.  This is just unacceptable when it comes to running your business.  In order to ensure that everything is running smoothly, you need to employ the proper records management system, whether it is contract or health records management that you need to worry about.

It can be hard to take care of managing your company’s records all by yourself.  Depending on how big your business is, it may even be impractical to hire someone for this job.  If this is the case for you, there are companies out there that specialize in records management.  They can help keep track of all of the paperwork that is making its way through your offices.  While this does cost extra money, many businesses find that it is worth the price.  Keep this in mind when you are planning your records system.

First starting up a business, you need to take a lot of things into consideration.  You can’t just pick a product and start selling it to people.  There are a lot more decisions that need to be made besides that.  When you are a newcomer to

business, you will often overlook a lot of aspects.  While this is common, it can be harmful.  Many people don’t make it through their first year with their new company because they didn’t realize how important certain things were.  One important aspect that often gets overlooked is record keeping.  Throughout a regular business day, you will be producing all sorts of paperwork that you need to keep track of.

Records is just a fancy name for paperwork.  They go by this term because, well, it isn’t always recorded on paper.  Essentially, anything that happens with your business needs to be recorded.  This could be all sorts of things.  You need to keep the receipts of all of the equipment that you buy for your business.  you will then need this later when tax season rolls around.  You also need to keep records of anything having to do with your customers.  You should keep their contact information for future use.  You should also keep every receipt from when they buy something from you.  You can this use this information later.

Not all records have to do with purchases.  For instance, you will need to keep records on your employees.  These are called personnel records.  You keep all of the paperwork that they filled out when they first started working for you.  You should also keep all of the time cards from when your employee worked.  This is a good way to determine not only what to pay them every pay period, but also how much sick and vacation time they have accumulated while working for you.

Records management is important because you are ensuring that you are running your business in the right way.  If anything ever happens, you will be prepared.  There are certain things that you need to ensure with your management system.  First, you need to make sure that all of your records are easily accessible.  This means that it can be easy to find what you need when you need it.  You also need to preserve the records as well.  Make sure that they stand the test of time.  Luckily, there are several different ways to store your records so that you can deal with this well.

In the past, companies dealt with records management by keeping everything in big filing cabinets.  Not only does this take up a lot of space, but it is also bad because it can often be hard to find certain things when you need them.  Records can get misfiled, so it could take hours to get what you need.  Rather than go this route, you may want to use electronic records management software instead.  These are computer programs that can store your records electronically.  The plus side to this is that it will take up much less space.  The records will also be a lot easier to find.

The type of records management storage you choose is entirely up to you.  If you have a small business, using filing cabinets may be the right choice.  Then again, if you have a large business, electronic records management software may be better.  Be sure to weigh all of your options before choosing a records storage system.  Once you choose your storage method, it will be very hard to switch to a different one, so it is best to make our choice wisely.

When you are planning out your business, there are a lot of things that you need to take into consideration.  For instance, there is a lot of thought and planning that goes into creating and selling a product.  You also need a way

to communicate with your customers.  Even people without a business background know something about these aspects.  There are other aspects of running a business that are much less known.  One of these is records management.  People don’t realize all that goes into this part of owning a company.  You need to put a lot of time, money and space into managing your records.  If you don’t you could run into a lot of problems.

Through an average work day, you will be creating countless records.  Every time you hire a new employee, you create a new record that needs to be managed.  This is also the case when you reprimand them or when you give them a raise.  You also create records every time someone buys a product or service for you.  You need records to identify that customer as well as a receipt for what they purchased.  These are only some of the records that can get produced by a company every day.  Over the years, there could be thousands or maybe even millions of records that need managing, depending on your business.  To do this right, you need to employ a good method of records management.

Records management can actually be very difficult.  With all of the paperwork that you are generating every day, this can grow fast.  You need to make sure that you can find any of your records as quickly as possible.  If these records get lost, you are in big trouble.  While there are many reasons why records management is important, one of the biggest is protection.  Keeping good records, and being able to find them easily, will help you just in case anyone ever sues you or if the government needs to have a look at your records.

There are many ways that you can manage your records.  You can do this by keeping them in filing cabinets.  This was the classic way of records management for a long time.  While this is an okay method, it does take up a lot of space.  It is also vulnerable to disasters such as floods and fires.  If you are planning to go thing route, you should make sure that you have duplicates of your archives in a storage facility offsite just in case something happens.  A better way to keep track of your records is to use electronic records management software.  These programs are used for the sole purpose of keeping track of your company’s records.  This is a good route because they don’t take up nearly as much space.  Just like with paper records, you should also have duplicates and a backup system to protect your archives.  Whether you choose electronic records management software or a different variety, it is important that you think of some way to protect the paperwork that your business generates.

As you can see, while you may not have thought about records management at first, it is really important to your business.  if you don’t keep good records, then you are putting your company at risk.  Always make sure that your records are being managed properly.  If you have a large business with a lot of paperwork, you may need to use the help of a records management company.  These companies are great at managing records and keeping everything in order.  This may be worth it for your business.