Howdy,

In a most recent accident, it would seem I shredded my face off!

As a strange coincidence, this happened this morning (Of course on a Monday and of course before sufficient coffee consumption), just two days before Halloween.

Consequently, my misfortune is to your benefit…

This Halloween (only a day and a half away), Wednesday October 31, 2012, I’m offering

31% OFF all Drop-Off Shredding

This includes:

• Un-Witnessed Drop-Off Shredding
• Witnessed Strip Cut Shredding
• Witnessed Cross Cut Shredding
• Hard Drive Shredding

Drop-Off Shredding Website [click here]

Just swing by this Wednesday and mention this offer to get your discount.

One way to mention it is to say, “Face Shredding Discount!”

But I’m sure whatever you come up with will suffice.

HOWEVER, this is ONLY good for Halloween (i.e. Wednesday October 31, 2012) and cannot be combined with any other offer.

Best regards,

Mike
Head (but faceless) Shredding Guy
Total Secure Shredding
(619) 295-5474

Yes, I actually do care…

About making sure your documents are properly shredded to your satisfaction.

Does that mean others who sell shredding services don’t care?

Well I’ll let you decide.

Are you giving your documents to a business or organization that only does shredding?

There are quite a few places in San Diego where you can simply drop off your documents with the expectation that at some point in the future they will be successfully shredded.

One type of business you may find offering shredding drop off  are “postal stores.”

Typically, these stores provide you the opportunity to drop off your sensitive documents with the promise that they will be stored securely and that a shredding company will come by one day in the future for shredding.

There are also very large national  ”charities” that allow you to drop off documents for eventual shredding.

But here are the things you MUST consider:

• How long are your documents going to sit there before shredding?
• Are the documents being stored securely?
• Who exactly has access to your documents?
• Who has been subcontracted to shred your documents?
• Where exactly is the location of eventual shredding?

In my mind, these are some of the most important questions you should be asking when it comes to taking your documents for shredding. And honestly, if you have to ask, I would consider going somewhere else!

But there is one more question:

Is a business or charitable organization that provides a variety of services not related to handing and destroying sensitive documents a good fit for your document shredding situation?

Is it just me or do the dots not quite connect that you would, at the same time, drop off some old clothes at a charity along with a box of sensitive documents for shredding? I for one do not care who may or may not be trying on an old pair of pants that I’ve donated. But the same most certainly CAN NOT be said for my old check books, tax returns, and bank statements!

Is it just me or am I the only one who just is a bit skeptical of the person behind the desk at the local postal store. Hell, I’m not even sure I trust them to get my package to its final destination much less hold onto my sensitive documents until some un-vetted shredding company decides to swing by.

Maybe you’re just not as paranoid as I am when it comes to shredding sensitive documents… 

If that’s the case, then my Shredding Service is most definitely NOT for you!

But if you’re just a fraction as paranoid as I am, then my service is the most perfect solution you’ll find just about anywhere.

Here is what we DON’T DO:

So if you’re looking for a shredding company that takes handing of your documents seriously, you’ve found the right place.

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

P.S. My comments about who pays taxes and who doesn’t is most definitely directed at the multitude of  ”non-profits” that have decided to delve into the for-profit world of shredding. That a “charity” would use its beneficial tax status and their relative high regard in society to artificially lower prices in order to “compete” is reprehensible. But if that wasn’t enough, they then employ individuals with disabilities where the state will subsidize a portion of their hourly wages; again to unfairly compete in an industry where there is vigorous for-profit competition. This is more than reprehensible, this is the height of moral depravity. So, yes, shredding non-profits, and you know who you are, as a small local business that has to compete against you and your government subsidies, I find your business deplorable. The comment section is open below!

Hey Folks,

I just wanted to let you know that your friends at Total Secure Shredding are now accepting e-Waste at no charge.

What is e-Waste?

E-Waste is all obsolete or outdated computers, televisions, cell phones, printers, PDAs, and multitudes of other electronic devices used throughout the day every day.

Why not just throw this stuff into the regular trash?

There are serious environmental concerns that result from the disposal of e-Waste. Here are just a few of the hazardous elements and compounds that are routinely found in everyday electronics:

• Lead in cathode ray tubes and solder
• Mercury in switches and housing
• Arsenic trioxide as flame retardant
• Polybrominated flame retardants in plastic casing, cables, and circuit boards
• Selenium in circuit boards as power to supply rectifier
• Cadmium in circuit boards and semiconductors
• Chromium in steel as corrosion protection
• Cobalt in steel for structural strength and magnetivity

Ok, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you…

I have no idea what all this means! (I do know that it doesn’t sound like something I’d want seeping into my water supply.)

But here’s the great news, I don’t have to know and neither do you.

You see, I’ve arranged for my buddy Ed Pletner (an electronic waste recycling guru) who runs AVR Recycling to come by my shop every once in a while to pick up all this e-Waste stuff. He then turns around and commoditizes what he can or will just make sure everything is properly recycled with the proper environmental compliance.

And what’s even better, he doesn’t charge me to do all this! (So how does Ed make money? I don’t know that either – I’m just the messenger here!) (He also picks up our shredded hard drives for recycling – that a bonus for your Head Shredding Guy!)

So in any event, I’m not going to charge you either!!

And , if you head on over to Ed’s website, you’ll also see that he is an Asset Management Expert which means he can put together a custom asset management strategy based on your company’s needs; From proper packing and disassemble to eventual asset retirement.

This even can include providing all the necessary logistical services to remove all your no longer needed equipment.

Ed also can use his “inside connections” to arrange to resell your old equipment for its maximum value – Talk about a WIN-WIN!

The reason I’m even getting involved in all this is because I’ve been shredding your hard drives over the last couple of years. During that process, I’ve managed to collect a little mountain of old computers I had no idea what to do with. Now I have a place to get rid of all these old computers.

But, I also noticed that there were quite a few folks who would show up for drop-off paper documents for shredding but also needed to get some old computers recycled. They typically would take these computers elsewhere for recycling.

Now they can drop them here. But there is one caveat…

If you bring in a computer for FREE recycling and don’t want the hard drive shredded, that’s fine, but you will have to sign a liability waiver that Total Secure Shredding is NOT responsible for any data left on the electronics for recycling.

So, starting today, feel free to bring down your old electronics for FREE, environmentally friendly, recycling any time during normal drop-off shredding hours.

Those hours are:

Monday to Friday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Here’s the address:

3584 Hancock St.
San Diego, CA 92110

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.

Until next time… Keep Totally Secure!

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy
(619) 295-5474

P.S. Did you get a load of all those toxic thingys listed above… Who knew?

Finally, an article that puts the argument of Hard Drive Shred Size to bed!

Just a week ago, I about put myself into a coma by trying to explain the impracticality of trying to recover data from a hard drive that had been physically destroyed.

In short… IT’S IMPOSSIBLE

Ok… it is possible… but in the “I’m going to win the Powerball Lottery” kind of way.

It all comes down to how the data on a hard drive is encoded. Each manufacturer encodes their hard drives differently.  Then, to allow for the most data to be stored on these hard drives, the manufacturers are increasing the “areal density” (how tightly the data is encoded) on the drives.

This equates to extremely complex coding unique to each manufacturer.

But isn’t there something that can read the data off a random discarded piece of a hard drive?

In theory… Yes.

There is a process called magnetic force microscopy (MFM) photography that can see the data in its encoded format.

So then all we have to do is decode it – Right?

Well, not so fast.

First, there is the problem of size. Each one of these pictures would have to be saved somewhere for later decoding. For a 20 gigabite hard drive, all these MFM “pictures” would take up approximately 16 terabytes.

Then, here’s the fun part, each picture would then have to “be analyzed by an expert to interpret each bit” of information. Just the idea of this puts the notion of hard drive data recovery in the realms of impossible.

But were not done.

Now we have to know how the hard drive was encoded so we can know how to decode it.

To decode the data it would be necessary to know the manufacturer of the hard drive and the model of the hard drive, in fact. Most likely, one would even need to know the version of the firmware that was used to write the data. Even this information is not enough to decode the data, as one would need access to the manufacturer’s proprietary information concerning how that particular firmware/model drive actually wrote the data to the disk surface.

Still not satisfied that the data on your hard drive is not secure after running it through a hard drive shredder?

So even if we had all the information needed to decode the data, any hard drive that has been physically altered (shredded) will have significant damage to portions of the disks platters that will make the data impossible to retrieve no matter what.

The only response at this point is that data recovery from a physically destroyed hard drive, especially one that is in pieces, is impossible.

So I guess I need to restate my earlier comment…

You probably MORE LIKELY to win the lottery than having the data from a shredded hard drive restored.

To read the full story as published in Storage & Destruction Business magazine, here’s the link:

“Does Size Really Matter?”

As always, if you have any questions about hard drive shredding or have other document destruction concerns, please feel free to give us a call:

(619) 295-5474

Also, I’d love to hear your feedback about this topic in the comments section below.

Until next time… Keep Totally Secure.

Your friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

P.S. I always knew that data recovery from a shredded hard drive was virtually impossible. But that paragraph in quotes above really eliminates the “virtually” part – Don’t ya think?

I’ve been working with (American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants) AALNC ever since they called me out of desperation the day prior to a scheduled shredding even when some other company backed out at the last second.

Since then we’ve built a strong relationship, I’ve still give them the price of $5.00 per box for watch while you wait shredding! If you’ve been down to our paper shredding facility lately, you know the price we charge for watch while you wait shredding is now $6.95 per box.

Here’s the details:

Price: $5.00 per standard file box
Who: AALNC
When: Saturday October 15, 2011 10am to 1:30pm
Where: Tri City Wellness Center
6250 El Camino Real
Carlsbad, CA 92009

View Larger Map
This event is being held up in Carlsbad. I get a number of calls asking if we have anything up in North County.

Well, here’s your chance!

Our big shredding truck will be on the scene to shred your documents while you wait. Normally this event is open to just members of AALNC, but this year they were nice enough to let me invite the entire world!

Hope to see you there!

Your Friend,

Mike
Head Shredding Guy

P.S. Did you see the incredibly low price I mentioned above!