What is NAID?
NAID stands for the National Association of Information Destruction. It was founded in 1992 as a trade association for businesses that directly provided secure and transparent destruction services. In the beginning, the association offered education and marketing materials to help businesses promote their services, but NAID underwent a drastic transformation in 2000 with the addition of a certification program.
A NAID AAA Certified provider has access to educational and support materials, and must comply with extensive requirements and submit to rigorous audits of their facilities, vehicles and other operations.
Features of NAID AAA Certification
- Regular, annual audits and unscheduled, surprise audits are conducted by trained security professionals.
- The program requires written policies and procedures for each company to ensure incident response preparedness, employee training, and regulatory compliance.
- Accredited auditors review employee background screening and training, compliance with written procedures, access controls, operational security, destruction equipment, and confidentiality agreements.
- A customer may request an audit report to monitor the service provider and to ensure they meet the regulatory risk assessment requirements.
- A customer may monitor compliance by subscribing to email notifications of the service provider’s certification renewal, audit, or lapse.
- To sign up for an email notification on our certification status go to https://directory.isigmaonline.org/ and search for Document Shredding & Storage (the name must be exact to return the correct results).
- There will be two results that can be viewed in either a list or on a map by selecting the option you want in the right column.
- You will see both our Amarillo and Lubbock locations. Under each location, there will be a link that says “Monitor location’s certification status.” When you click on this link a pop up will appear asking for your email. Once your email is confirmed you will receive notifications about any changes to that location’s certification status.
- Please note that each DSS location is monitored separately, so click on the location you want notifications about, or, to monitor both locations, you will need to sign up for them both.
- The Certification Review Board and the Certification Rules Committee oversee the program’s integrity, both of which contain industry veterans and outside, accredited professionals.
- All documents and specifications are available to the public for free and online. Audit reports and monitoring services are also provided to clients at no charge. The association’s financial records and board of director’s meeting minutes are available online as well.
- More than 1,000 operations on five continents are certified by NAID, including mobile, plant-based, paper, and computer destruction services. NAID AAA Certification is required by hundreds of government offices and thousands of private contracts.
- NAID AAA Certification is acknowledged by many accreditation programs, such as those offered by the International Association of IT Asset Managers, the Institute of Certified Records Managers, and the R2 IT asset recycling program certification offered by the Sustainable Electronic Recycling Institute (SERI).
i-SIGMA
In 2018, NAID and another trade association, the Professional Records and Information Services Management (PRISM) were joined together under a new umbrella organization called the International Secure Information Governance & Management Association (i-SIGMA). The goal of this parent organization is to provide consistency and cooperation in certifying both destruction companies, records management companies, and businesses that do both.