Important documents such as account statements, bills, or other important files are shredded, preventing anyone attempting to read them. The second leading cause of all identity thief occurs because the thief has gone dumpster diving and retrieved either a bill, account statement, or other document that has information the criminal can used to steal someone’s identity.
All important records, files, and documents should be shredded through a paper shredder before they are thrown out to prevent identity theft. Once you have thrown a document into the trash bin, it can be collected by thieves, investigators, or even corporate spies. By shredding, all documents in paper shredders you maximum security. Cleanup is also made simpler because many of today’s paper shredders have their own trash bins. Other types of paper shredders are designed to fit over or beside a waste bin.
When shopping for a paper shredder it is important to know that they are categorized by their size and shape of the shreds that they produce. Below I’ve listed several paper shredders in order of lest secure to most secure.
Strip Cut Paper Shredders use knives, which rotate and cut the paper into long narrow strips that are the length of the sheet of paper. The main disadvantage of this paper shredder is that the shreds are the simplest to reconstruct by investigators, thieves, and/, or corporate spies making this the least secure type of shredder.
Cross Cut Paper Shredders are more secure as they use drums, which contra-rotate and shreds the paper into small rectangular shaped.
Particle Cut Paper Shredders cuts the paper or document into small square shreds.
Granulators and Disintegrators literally repeatedly shreds the paper until it is small enough to fit through the mesh screen, making it nearly impossible for the document to be reassembled.
Pulverizes or Hammer Mills are the most secure form of paper shredder. These enormous machines pulverize the paper into dust, making it impossible for any one to reconstruct the document. These are also very expensive.
Other forms of paper shredders do not actually shred the paper but destroys the documents, file, or paper with the use of chemicals, burning materials or composting materials, which completely destroy the document after it has been shredded.
For private use, the average individual should only require a Cross Cut or Particular Cut paper shredder. However, if you are looking for a paper shredder for your corporation, then depending on the amount of security your business requires you may wish to consider investigating in either a Granulator or Disintegrator.
You have to keep in mind that any undisturbed shredded papers will tend to stay in close proximity to each other unless they have been mixed by an outer force. This makes it simple for specially trained individuals to reassemble the document. If you're concerned about being a victim of identity theft you have every right to worry. Identity thieves will steal your garbage and apply for pre approved credit cards, auto and even home loans. This is why you should shred all paper that has your personal information on it. If you want to learn more about protecting yourself from identity theft, visit www.stopidentityfraud.org to get additional tips.
In addition the Enron accountancy scandal came about, when confidential documents were fed through the shredder in such a way that the printed lines were not at right angles to the blades of the shredder, creating long strips of readable texts.
Another case of documents being reassembled was after the Iranian revolution in 1979. The United States government employed local Iranian carpet weavers to reconstructed documents found in the Tehran US embassy.
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