Various laws require that confidential information remains that way, this includes medical records, financial, personal information about individuals and credit account info. The Federal Acts are: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Sarbanes-Oxley. If McDonalds can be sued for hot coffee, a business can be sued for non-compliance with these laws and more.
There are various kinds of file cabinets and storage methods. The locks on basic file cabinets offer very little security unless they have a file bar and a good padlock. Suitable padlocks are: Abloy, American, and Sesamee, avoid easy to pick padlocks. Some fireproof file cabinets come equipped with very secure locks such as Medeco, Tubar or a manipulation-proof combination lock. If there are lots of cabinets, we recommend a room with increased security like electronic access control with an audit trail. Such a room would have to be secure against simple attacks like climbing in through the ceiling tiles.
In summary, if you are entrusted with confidential information, it’s your duty to protect it to the best of your ability.
Good lock to you.
Chris G.
