Purchasing looks to supply chain to combat identity theft
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 10/25/2006 12:31:00 PM
Purchasing’s supply chain can be a good source for help with combating identity theft and fraud, Tom Heisroth, senior vice president, Staples National Advantage, recently told Purchasing magazine at a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Framingham, Mass.
In the discussion, Heisroth talked about ways his customers are managing costs through a consolidated supply base. For Staples, they are looking to the office products distributor to provide such additional items as technology, furniture and business services, he says.
And now shredders.
Staples National Advantage is introducing a new line of shredders that overcome existing limitations in shredder technology, such as size and noise, and enable businesses to more easily shred confidential materials during the work day. These are Staples MailMate shredder, a personal shredder with an innovative sleek design that sits on any desk, making shredding easy, and Staples ultra quiet heavy-duty Microcut shredder, a whisper quiet and secure shredder that cuts sheets into confetti-sized pieces that can’t be put back together.
Staples also offers products for safe-guarding computer equipment such as a MicroSaver notebook lock from Kensington which provides theft protection for laptops, flat-panel monitors and other computer peripherals, and Norton Systemworks/Personal Firewall bundle by Symantec which prevents intruders from breaking into a computer system to steal confidential information.
Staples has enlisted the assistance of secure document expert Frank Abagnale, subject of the movie Catch Me If You Can, in providing advice to customers through a webcast on how to protect confidential information in the office, at home and online, on Nov. 8.
“U.S. businesses last year reported over 100 million significant data breaches affecting nearly 56 million individuals,” says Abagnale. “Companies and their employees must take the proper steps to safeguard and secure their information at all times. This includes destroying confidential materials before disposing of them, protecting laptops and portable equipment with anti-theft locks and equipping all computers with virus protection and firewall software.”
Staples is a founding member of a coalition of companies including Visa, Microsoft and AT&T to combat ID theft and fraud. The initiative, called the Identify Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards Panel, is a collaboration spearheaded by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Better Business Bureau (BBB) system to create a single resource of standards, guidelines and resources for businesses and organizations to use to prevent and respond to ID theft and fraud.
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