text/x-generic header.php ( HTML document, ASCII text ) Document shredders: Cutting type and protection class | Mastershred

  • A high-quality and powerful document shredder is the most secure option in the prevention of data abuse within your company. Depending on how sensitive the data is with which you work in your working life, you must consider some things, not only storage.

    There are particular rules that must be maintained in document shredding to ensure data protection after disposal.

    In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), shredders are also designed for different data protection demands. Important for the purchase of a document shredder: cutting types that are adapted to the respective protection class and safety level of the destructed data.

    Strip cut, particle cut and cross cut: dependent on the protection class

    In the shredding of paper, CDs and hard disks on which personal data is recorded or stored, data protection must continue to be observed. Depending on the categorisation of sensitivity of the data to be disposed, it is categorised into different protection classes. These protection classes can be further sub-divided pursuant to DIN 66399 into different security levels.

    • Protection class 1: Protection class 1 corresponds to security levels P-1, P-2 and P-3. Data within this protection class has a normal protection requirement. It is normally internal documents that should be devalued or made unreadable.
    • Protection class 2: Data that falls in to protection class 2 has a higher protection requirement and corresponds to the security levels P-3 to P-5. It is particularly sensitive, confidential and/or personal.
    • Protection class 3: Data of protection class 3 is particularly confidential or secret data with which very high security precautions must be maintained during shredding. Protection class 3 corresponds to security levels P-5, P-6 and P-7.

    In accordance with this categorisation, it must be ensured that the appropriate shredder is used in the destruction of this data. The most common are document shredders with a particle cut or strip cut and shredders with a cross cut.

    Particle cut, cross cut or strip cut: What is different about the cutting types?

    When selecting the correct document shredder there are some things to consider to find the correct model. How many employees will use the device? What cutting capacity is required? What shredder material is to be shredded in what volumes? Is a particular feature required, such as automatic paper feed or metal detection? Last but not least, you should consider which cutting type the document shredder should use.

    These document shredder cutting types are the most common:

    Document shredder with strip cut

    Shredders with strip cut shred paper or other data carriers along the length into narrow strips. They are maximum 6 millimetres wide and as long as paper fed in.

    Benefits of a document shredder with cross cut:

    • The document shredders are relatively affordable.
    • They have a pleasantly low noise level.
    • The resulting shredder material is relatively large, the information on the documents can, in theory, be restored. The strip cut is however, sufficient for the shredding of data in protection class 1.

    Document shredder with cross cut

    Document shredders are not known as shredders for no reason. Particularly with the cross cut, documents are “shredded”, when doing this the cutting rollers look like the sharp teeth of a predator. Contrary to shredders with strip cut, document shredders and paper shredders with cross cut do not only shred data carriers length ways. Instead, they are also cut transversely, thus forming a cross. As a result, instead of long strips you get smaller particles. Depending on the security level the shredder complies with, determines the particle size.

    Benefits of a cross cut document shredder:

    • This document shredder type shreds not only paper, but also CDs and credit cards.
    • The powerful shredding prevents a paper jam.
    • The finer shredding of documents results in a higher level of security, it makes the document unreadable and it is difficult to reconstruct.
    • Cross cut document shredders are suitable for documents within protection class 2.

    Document shredders: What is particle cut?

    Document shredders with cross cut or particle cut? Essentially a particle cut document shredder is just a cross cut shredder that transforms the material to be disposed of into particularly small particles. Both cutting types work using the same principle: The shredder is equipped with a cutting roller made from steel, which interlink and therefore cut the paper both longitudinally and transversely.

    Benefits of a shredder with particle cut:

    • Paper shredders with particle cut, also with a very fine cross cut, shred files into very small particles. Thus making it is as good as impossible to reconstruct the destroyed data.
    • The particle cut is suitable for the disposal of documents that fall within protection class 3.

    Smaller than cross cut or particle cut: Micro cut

    The name says it all – shredders with micro-cut technology shred the material into extremely small pieces. Even these document shredders work according to the cross cut principle. The micro cut is essentially a cross cut shredder that produces a particularly fine particle cut.

    Benefits of a shredder with micro cut:

    • The intense shredding ensure the highest possible level of data protection.
    • The micro cut is therefore suitable for files of security levels P-5, P-6 and P-7.