Shredding

How do I choose a document shredder?

In a company, you have a lot of information that should remain confidential and which justifies the use of a document shredder rather than simply throwing these documents in the bin. In addition to the bank details you may have, you should carefully destroy personal information, which can lead to identity theft. It is also essential for the smooth running of your business to destroy all commercial documents, which could potentially be recovered by one of your competitors.

What are the criteria to take into account when choosing the right shredder? Lyreco's experts have looked into this issue and have identified the important points to check when selecting the right shredder.

The level of confidentiality of the shredder
The shredder protects your data but there are different levels of confidentiality. Your company will not shred a simple invoice or a quotation in the same way, for which shredding in strips will suffice. This is in contrast to bank references, which will have to be shredded into confetti, making it much more difficult to put the puzzle back together.

The security level of a material is expressed by the Din 66399 standard. Here we will develop the part relating to paper, which is expressed by the prefix P, ranging from the most basic: P-1 to the most efficient P-7.

The P-1 and P-2 levels will be adapted to your generic documents with a low level of confidentiality, your A4 document will thus be transformed into 36 strips.
The P-3 security level: is ideal for documents considered sensitive in your company, your sheets will be transformed into hundreds of confetti.
The P-4 level is recommended for a document identified as confidential, such as a salary slip, this level of security will shred the document into more than 400 particles.
P-5 protection is used in companies for documents with a high level of confidentiality, such as strategic plans or company personnel data. This type of security destroys an A4 sheet of paper into several thousand particles, making it impossible to extract any information from it.
The P-6 and P-7 levels of security are used in administrations and armies with an extreme level of security. The sheets are destroyed in tens of thousands of particles, it is impossible to get any information from the destroyed document.

The type of cut of the shreddersThe type of cut is directly linked to the level of confidentiality, as it defines the format in which your document is destroyed.