Per Peter's RAIN:

On Jul 30, 2008, at 12:00 AM, RECMGMT-L automatic digest system wrote:

> <http://lubbockonline.com/stories/072708/bus_310189114.shtml>
>


This is the new breed of offsite storage company.  High security  
shredding, high security media vaulting and high security document  
vaulting.  They often start in smaller markets where storing records  
is a much more personal responsibility.  They see up close what  
happens to their friends and fellow businessmen that suffer from  
identity theft, industrial espionage.  These events seem to blur as  
companies grow larger and they lose the focus of why they are in  
business.

In London a records center fire destroyed hundreds of thousands of  
Mammograms, MRI's and other media records.  So let us just view what  
happens with one type of record.  Not the piece of film but the  
information residing in that piece of film. Depending on the follow  
up actions of the women represented in those 250,000 sets of  
mammograms, the death rate from unchecked cancer could cause 7,000 to  
35,000 women to die of breast cancer or have mastectomies. Possession  
of this knowledge base could have been prevented the rapid spread of  
cancer if only their three year history of past mammograms still  
existed.

(Calculation:  250,000 women between 40 to 55 years of age with an  
annual cancer development rate of 7% per year.  Breast cancer is 99%  
fatal if the person fails to seek treatment.  Late detected cancer  
leads to mastectomies.  Failure to have the check files eliminates  
the valuable tool of the radiologist that could have reviewed the  
films to see new growths.)

But who here checks to see if their doctor or their wife's doctor has  
protected those films. Yet their loss is catastrophic.  Just one  
year's delay in detection is crucial.  Each year we walk in Breast  
Cancer walks to fight cancer.  Maybe Records Managers should have a  
fight of their own to make sure these files are protected at local  
hospitals.

As the Owner stated:

>  Miller said he takes document security personally.
>
> "We have terrorists and others involved in drugs who make use of  
> identity theft for their own causes. Everything we do here is about  
> protecting businesses," he said.

The nuclear power industry is demanding real security. I am involved  
in several such projects at this very moment.  Other parts of the  
government will follow. The pressure from the top level executives  
becomes enormous when their legal department eventually explains how  
much risk the Board and the C-Level officers are exposed to when  
records are destroyed. Management has tried to respond to this by  
creating new officers:  CIO, CSO, CXO and so on to do a job that was  
always the records managers.  Many would tell you that ARMA type  
records managers have missed the ball by focusing first on managing  
records and losing site of the real goal, protecting the vital records.

Many of those most successful in this industry did so by convincing  
management of the value of the records and therefore the person  
managing them must also be of great value.  But the next time you  
read of a offsite records storage center fire or a a fire at a  
government records center, think about the real consequences.  Who  
could have prevented the loss?

Hugh Smith
FIRELOCK Fireproof Modular Vaults
[log in to unmask]
(610)  756-4440    Fax (610)  756-4134
WWW.FIRELOCK.COM


List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]