Unsecure practices in the workplace put the confidential information of companies' customers and employees at risk.

That's according to leading data destruction firm Shred-it, who is calling upon Australian businesses to review workplace information security practices in the wake of International Fraud Awareness Week.

According to the firm, human error is seen by almost half of business owners as the biggest security risk in terms of a data breach.

Tom Bell, country manager of Shred-it Australia, says customers and employees want to know that their information is protected by Australian organisations.

“There is a strong correlation between poor data security practices and data breaches therefore businesses must address the vulnerabilities in their workplaces if they are to mitigate the risk of both breaches and fraud,” he explains.

Shred-it is also calling on all organisations to not only address vulnerable areas in the workplace but to do the same for their vendor supply chain, including shredding and document destruction vendors, to make sure that they are operating in a secure manner.

More than half of all businesses surveyed that work with external document destruction vendors say they do because it is more secure than the alternatives.

However, Bell explains that many organisations are still putting themselves at risk if they do not audit their service provider's security practices.

“Likewise, companies cannot afford to rely on destruction suppliers who are secure only in name but not in action,” he says.

“This International Fraud Awareness Week, we're calling on Australian businesses to challenge not only their information destruction partners but all of their suppliers to demonstrate what processes they have in place to make sure that information is adequately protected throughout the supply chain.