NAID AAA Certification Now Applies to Product Destruction

May 9, 2018

Those reviewing the current application for NAID AAA Certification of Physical Destruction Operations will notice it now contains a new endorsement for Production Destruction.

According to Certification Rules Committee Chairman Vlad Vasak of K2 Partners, the security specifications for the product destruction endorsement differed from those of media destruction.

“Unlike other forms of media, there is no consistency in the types of products requiring secure destruction,” said Vasak. “One service provider is asked to destroy counterfeit branded products, while another to destroy old dental molds, and yet another police uniforms.”

Old products also have the added liability of being of potential use, sometimes appearing to the employee to be innocuous.

NAID CEO Bob Johnson puts it, “An employee that would never consider taking discarded media might, on the other hand, be tempted to rationalize taking a perfectly good coffee mug, thinking ‘what’s the harm’ simply because it has an obsolete logo on it.”

To address the concerns regarding these challenges, service providers adding the Product Destruction endorsement to their NAID AAA Certification are required to detail the destruction process to be utilized for each and every product destruction project/item in writing with the client and to keep a record of this for inspection. Furthermore, Employee Confidentiality Agreements must contain language wherein the employee agrees that products accepted for destruction are to be considered confidential and that removal or use by the employee is a violation punishable by dismissal and subject to possible legal prosecution.

There is no added cost to the service provider for adding the Product Destruction Endorsement to an existing NAID AAA Certification during their next scheduled audit.

Please submit all questions to [email protected].