Dr. Lutz Hasse used the example of the municipality of Immelborn in his state, where some 450,000 confidential files were found in an unsecured building in 2013 to highlight the serious consequences of failures in data protection. “This sensitive information was dealt with here in a totally negligent manner,” he said in his review of the incident, which the authorities responsible are still trying to deal with. “Many government agencies and companies often don’t even know what rules they should observe in order to prevent these or other data breaches from occurring.”
Professional documents logisticians with security archives protected from external influences such as burglary or the weather can help governments and businesses solve their problems, Jens Kumbrink, Managing Director of Rhenus Office Systems, explained. Using practical examples, he emphasized: “We support our customers not only in the archiving and digitization of documents and operation of mailrooms but also in the destruction of files and disks in compliance with data protection regulations. Our core services also include the handling of processes for our customers, either in part or completely.”
Both the Rhenus Office Systems and the Thuringian data protection specialists agreed that industry-wide standards are needed to sideline the document logistics industry’s black sheep.” “We are working very closely with the responsible authorities at federal and state levels to draw up workable rules. Such standards must then be consistently established in the market,” Gerhard Friederici, head of security and quality at Rhenus Office Systems, concluded.
However, Dr. Lutz Hasse thinks there is still a long way to go before the situation is ideal: “In the next few years, we will also have to switch to other measures to continuously improve the quality of data protection in addition to informing all parties.”
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