"We have a clear desk policy but no one adheres to it" is a common lament heard during business impact analysis interviews or risk assessment workshops. As is "We don’t have enough cupboards to put things away" or "We don’t have a big enough fire safe to hold all our critical documents, so what’s the point?".

Well the point is that this kind of apathy results in many organisations putting their critical information at risk.

People often think that if they don’t have a fire safe there is nothing they can do to protect their critical documents. But simply putting documents away at the end of the working day, or when they’re not being used, actually offers a fair degree of protection and can dramatically increase their chances of survival in the event of a fire, flood, explosion or whatever.

Documents filed in an ordinary wooden or metal cupboard or filing cabinet, or in a desk drawer, are much better protected than those out on desks. Think about it – they don’t catch fire as easily, they take much longer to burn, they don’t get as wet, they don’t blow around and they’re safer from prying eyes than loose documents on desks.

So if it’s important to you, put it away – or one day you may find you’ve become a paperless office without intending to!