Cutting Out The Secrets About Paper Shredders
Paper shredders are machines that allow the shredding of any
paper to tiny pieces or very fine strips. Paper shredders are
commonly used by individuals or groups that need to destroy
classified documents that may prove to be of danger to
themselves or to their group. These documents are cut into tiny
pieces so that no one attempting to read them will succeed in
doing so. Experts in the field of privacy will often advise
individuals to destroy some of their personal documents like
account statements, bills or other important files that cannot
be allowed to fall into the hands of anyone.
1. Avoid Identity Theft
Another reason why important personal records and files must be
destroyed is to avoid identity theft. Identity theft is simply
when another person is assuming the persona of another person.
Important records and files shredded through a paper shredder
will be impossible to read - thus eliminating the possibility of
identity theft.
Though paper shredders have given us the security of destroying
files that we don't want anyone else to see, our carelessness
can take away that security. In situations where a person merely
leaves shredded paper from the paper shredder lying just about
anywhere or at the garbage bin, the pieces can still be
collected by nosy people or investigators, maybe even spies. To
enable maximum security, when using a paper shredder make sure
that documents are fed in a horizontal way and that they are
perpendicular to the blades of the shredder.
2. Easy Cleanup
Many modern paper shredders come with their own waste bin, and
those that do not have one are designed to enable them to fit
over or next to another waste bin. Paper shredders are
categorized depending on their size and shape of the shreds that
they produce.
++ Strip Cut ++
A strip cut paper shredder uses knives that rotate that cut long
narrow strips as long as the original size of the paper. The
product of this paper shredder is the easiest to reconstruct for
determined and patient investigators or spies. This is also the
least secure type of paper shredder.
++ Cross Cut ++
This type of paper shredder uses drums that contra-rotate to cut
the paper into parallelogram or rectangular shaped shreds.
3. Particle cut
The product of this paper shredder creates tiny square or
circular shreds.
4. Granulators and disintegrators
These are paper shredders that randomly cut the paper repeatedly
until they are no more than little particles that can fit
through the mesh
5. Pulverizers or hammermills
Huge devices that simply make dust out of your paper
6. Alternatives
Some alternative paper shredders not just shred the paper but
are also sometimes equipped with chemicals, burning materials or
composting materials that completely destroy the document after
shredding it. For paper shredders that do not protect up to
maximum security, like the strip cut - it will still be possible
to unshred the document by reconstructing and pasting the
shredded pieces together. This was fist spurred with the Enron
accountancy scandal, where documents containing altered
information were fed through the paper shredder in the wrong
way, enabling the investigator to reassemble the original
document.
7. Reconstruction
As difficult as it is to understand, shredded paper is possible
to reconstruct. Undisturbed shredded papers tend to stay in
close proximity with each other unless acted upon by an outer
force, especially if these shredded materials belong to the same
document. Also, as with the Enron accountancy scandal,
confidential documents were fed through the shredder in a wrong
way. When paper is fed in such a way that its lines are not at
right angles with the blades of the shredder, it creates
shredded paper containing longer and readable texts.
Shredded paper can even be reconstructed without the use of any
machines. In 1979, just after the Iranian revolution, the U.S
government hired local Iranian carpet weavers who with patience
reconstructed the documents found in the Tehran US embassy.
Because of this, paper shredders made a step further in creating
paper shredders that can pulverize, pulp and decompose the
shredded.