There are two security features worth knowing about—Cut Type & DIN Level

DIN Level

These tell you how strong the level of security is by the size of shred. Ranging from DIN 1 to DIN 7, the higher the number, the smaller the shred size and the greater the security will be.

A shredder offering DIN 1 can leave you with shreds of around 4 x 12mm, whereas a typical DIN 7 spec shredder can reduce documents to 0.8 x 5mm particles, or around 15,000 particles per A4 sheet.

The smaller the particle, the higher the security.

Cut Type

A shredder will either reduce a document into strip cuts, cross cuts or micro cuts.

Strip cuts are ribbons up to the length of the shredded document, and these are usually featured on lower security shredders such as P-1, P-2 and P-3.

Higher level security shredders usually produce cross cuts, which are much shorter strips. These typically fall into P-3 and P-4 security.

The highest-level security shredders will reduce your documents into micro-cuts, which are even smaller than cross cuts. These typically fall into the P-4, P-5 security levels. However, for extra sensitive documents, such as classified government materials, there are also high security shredders with an even smaller micro cut. These typically have a P-6, or P-7 rating.