| Not All Paper Shredders Are Created Equal |
Not all paper shredders are the same. You may have discovered this in your own life by personal experience or perhaps you learned this while shopping online. Paper shredders are available in a wide variety of cutting formats. These cutting formats are referred to in the shredder industry as security levels, which were designated by the Deutsche Industrial Norm as DIN 32757.
Many people are aware of the fact that there are strip cut and cross cut paper shredders. One cuts the paper into thin strips and the other cuts the paper into "confetti-like" particles. Strip cut paper shredders usually cut paper into ¼-inch or 1/8-inch strips. Cross cut paper shredders are available in literally dozens of different cutting sizes.
The larger the size, the easier it is to piece a document back together. The U.S. Government learned this the hard way in 1979 after the U.S. embassy was overrun in Iran. The U.S. embassy only used strip cut shredders to shred top security and high security documents. Needless to say, the Iranians were able to put the strip cut documents back together with the help of some experienced basket weavers.
The U.S. Government learned a lesson from that experience. The U.S. Government will now only uses cross cut paper shredders with a security level of 5 or 6. The end result is tiny particles and dust that cannot be reassembled. The higher the security level, the more secure the cut.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using a higher security paper shredder. The higher the security level, the smaller the cut. Although this is nice for security, the shredder blades cannot handle as much paper at a time. Most businesses find a happy medium with a security level 3 or 4. This allows businesses to still get a good secure cut while still being able to shred a lot of paper.
Security level 1 paper shredders are the least secure cut on the DIN 32757 security level scale. These shredders cut paper into 3/8-inch strips (10.5mm) or 3/8-inch x 1 ½ to 3 1/8-inch (10.5mm x 40-80mm) cross cut particles. This is almost the same security level you would get cutting a document up with scissors. Very few shredders are built to this low a security level anymore.
The highest security level is a level 6. These types of paper shredders cut documents into 1/32-inch by 5/32-inch (1mm x 4-5mm) particles or smaller. Security level 6 is not an officially accepted security level by the Deutsche Industrial Norm DIN 32757 and was created by the U.S. Government.
Using any paper shredder (http://www.officezone.com/shred1.htm) is still better than none, but be sure your paper shredder is a security level 3 or higher to keep your sensitive information safe. For more questions on paper shredders, please contact Office Zone (http://www.officezone.com).
Article Source: UnArchived Articles
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