Halloween on campus will be filled with the screams of unwilling personal details suffering a quick but gruesome end. Information Technology Services is inviting students, staff and faculty, and the wider community to come and shred their unwanted personal information by hosting Nightmare on Shred Street.
Records and Information Manager, Ashley Haughton says the event is a great way to safely destroy those old bills, bank statements and even old hard drives, and get into the Halloween spirit.
“In support of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Information Technology is partnering with Lethbridge Mobile Shredding to offer free shredding of personal documents and e-waste. After running a series of workshops on campus about how to safely dispose of university materials, we found that staff, students and faculty were wanting a way to do the same for their personal information,” says Haughton. “Lining up the event with Halloween is just a fun way to promote the event, dust off the scary costume in the wardrobe and give back to an important cause on campus.”
Participants of the shredding event are asked to bring a non-perishable food item or cash donation to the Students’ Union food bank which has been running low over the past few months. Students’ Union president, Cameron Howey believes events like Nightmare on Shred Street are a win-win for all involved.
“With so many concerns around identity theft and information security these days, it’s a fun way to clean out your filing cabinet, put your mind at ease and help out the U of L students who need a helping hand,” says Howey.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Canada and in 2016, Lethbridge ranked in the top 40 for identity fraud amongst the 100 biggest Canadian cities and top ten for fraud in general according to Maclean’s.
The event will be held at the bus loading zone to the west of the 1st Choice Savings Centre for Sport and Wellness on Oct. 31 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For details on what is acceptable shredding materials and quantity limits, head over to the Notice Board.