MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- More than 10,000 pounds of white office paper are processed at the Station Recycling Center each month. A mere 2,500 pounds are shredded, leaving 7,500 pounds of legible documents. Each pound contains approximately 100 sheets of paper, making 750,000 legible documents full of information available to anyone looking for personal or unit information.
The Station Anti Terrorism Force Protection Office has recently expressed the presence of a potentially devastating security threat to Station residents; the amount of personal and unit information found in recycling bins across the Station.
“It all comes down to information security,” said Andrew Samuels, Station ATFP officer. “In the past, people were pretty good about protecting their information, but within the last 30 days we’ve seen a rise in the amount of information found in recycling bins. From social security numbers, recall rosters, orders, tax information and other personal information, there’s a lot of unsecured information out there.”
Although shredding paper may seem to be a mundane job that is perpetually someone else’s responsibility, this simple act plays a vital role in the recycling process as well as Station security, according to Samuels.
The information threat begins when a document is placed in the recycling bin without being shredded. There it sits until the bin fills up and is taken out to the larger, dumpster-style recycling bin and wait to be picked up by one of the six members of the SRC. Once it reaches the SRC, the document goes through a large machine to prepare the paper for being bailed into large cubes. Once bailed, the paper is purchased and picked up by outside contractors for 10 to 15 Yen per pound. At that point the paper, and any information on it, is no longer secure.
This issue not only represents a personal threat of identification theft for Station residents, but also to Station units and equipment.
“Being overseas, our biggest concern is I.D. fraud,” said Gunnery Sgt. Anaiz Stinson, Station information assurance manager. “Once someone gets a stolen ID, they can potentially get access to certain parts of the base in which they normally could not be able to. If they got access to the flight line, imagine how many millions of dollars in equipment they would have access to.”
Even though this escalating problem has disturbing effects, it also has a very quick and easy answer: use a paper shredder.
“We would really like community support with this effort,” said Ryan Leming, SRC solid waste manager. “If we see something like an ID card, we’ll take care of it. But, unless we’re incredibly lucky, we probably miss a lot more than we catch.”
Request forms to have recycling picked up by SRC are available via the Intranet, but if transportation is available the SRC encourages recycling be dropped off at their 24-hour drop off point. For more information call 253-3039.