NAID Briefing: Economic Recovery Comes with a Caveat

There is significant evidence that things are improving for the secure destruction industry. Among that evidence: 1) the economy is showing clear signs of improvement, 2) recent and upcoming increases in regulatory pressure related to data protection, 3) the continuing increase in attention to improper data disposal events by the media and the public and 4) the number of NAID-certified locations exceeding 500 and the announcement that this will soon include all of the national companies’ operations.

Throughout the last few years, NAID’s membership growth significantly exceeded the number of new certifications. That has flipped. NAID is still growing at the rate of 10 new members per month; however, new certifications are now averaging 18 per month—up from eight per month over the same period last year. And, while HITECH is good news for the industry today, and even better news as a sign of laws in the pipeline, it and its successors will dramatically raise the liabilities associated with providing secure destruction services and will have customers taking a much longer look at the companies they choose to process their information.

Space does not permit an explanation of how these trends benefit the industry; those explanations are deep, complex and textured, and industry participants would do well to pay attention to them.