What Shredder Security Level Do You Need?

Understanding Paper Shredder Security Levels

Paper shredding security levels are standardized by the German Institute of Standardization and are called DIN levels after the organization’s German name. The DIN 32757 standard for paper is divided into five levels:

• Level 1: “General Document Destruction” shreds standard home and business documents into 12-millimeter paper strips and is suitable for general use.
• Level 2: “Destruction of Sensitive Internal Company and/or Personal Documents Requiring Higher Security than Level 1” creates 3.9- to 5.8-millimeter strips or a cross-cut of 8-by-80 millimeters. This level is often used in small offices to shred invoices, photocopies, printouts and other documents.
• Level 3: “Destruction of Confidential Personal & Business Documents” shreds internal company documents, personal data, and customer information into 2-millimeter paper strips or a cross-cut of 3.9-by-50 millimeters that looks like confetti.
• Level 4: “Destruction of Confidential Documents Crucial to a Company’s Existence” is often used by hospitals to conform to HIPAA laws and is also standard for bank documents and extremely sensitive company information.
• Level 5: “Destruction of Secret Documents as Required for Government Offices or Important Research,” used for documents pertaining to government and military security, reduces paper to particles measuring 0.8-by-11 millimeters.

A sixth level, designated as High Security Destruction of Top-Secret Documents, shreds paper so small that it resembles dust and was once considered the most secure level. However, the recently released DIN 66399 standards are making changes to paper shredder security levels. The update includes three protection classes, six material classifications, and seven shredding security levels. Shredders are being updated to meet these paper shredding security levels and provide greater protection for individuals and businesses.

Shredding Services from PROSHRED® Tampa Bay

Having in-house shredders that meet the required shredder security level for your industry is no guarantee that all of your sensitive documents will be properly disposed of. Additionally, keeping up with in-house shredding can take up valuable employee time which may be better spent elsewhere. On-site shredding services from PROSHRED® Tampa Bay guarantee your information is properly handled using the right shredding security levels. PROSHRED® also holds a combination of ISO 9001 and NAID AAA certifications that are unique to the shredding industry, so you know your documents are in safe hands. Professional shredding services offered by PROSHRED® Tampa Bay take the guesswork out of the document destruction process while freeing up your employees to focus on their intended roles.

Using mobile shredding trucks and secure document consoles, PROSHRED® Tampa Bay ensures that nobody sees your paperwork during the shredding process. Other paper is mixed with yours as it’s being shredded at the highest security level required. At the end of the shredding process, you’ll receive a Certificate of Destruction as proof that all documents were completely destroyed.

At PROSHRED® Tampa Bay, we also do more than just onsite paper shredding. We are also a local industry leader for secure hard drive shredding services as well as secure product shredding services. Similar to how our paper shredding services satisfy a number of shredder security level compliance requirements, these services are in compliance with various industry and government destruction standards. Regardless of your exact needs, PROSHRED® Tampa Bay has a secure destruction service that can safeguard your valuable information.