What type of shredder is most secure?

A micro-cut shredder with security level DIN P-7 (Protection Class: 3) is the most secure paper shredder. This type of paper shredder offers you maximum data security and turns a standard (top secret) A4 document into 12,474+ particles.

What is a P-7 Shredder?

Each paper shredder is officially rated with a DIN security level. For example DIN P-4, or DIN P-7. The DIN P-level is part of the official German DIN 66399 standard. The levels range from P-1 to DIN P-7. A high DIN security level indicates that the shredder shreds documents into smaller paper shreddings.

A P-7 shredder shreds documents into unreadable particles with the size of a grain of rice.

DIN Protection class 3

DIN P-7 falls under protection class 3 of the security standard DIN 66399.This indicates:

For who is a P7 paper shredder for?

A P-7 paper shredder is meant for destroying highly confidential data with the highest security precautions. These high-security shredding machines are used by government agencies, banks, embassies, the military, and medical fields.

Check NSA-approved shredders

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How small are P7 paper particles?

As you can see below, a DIN P-7 shred is very tiny. Especially when you compare it to more general security levels as DIN P-3 and DIN P-4.

Compare the security levels

We have created a Microsoft Word document you can print out to see for your self how small or large each DIN 66399 security level is in reality.

How does it work?

1. Download this Word document
2. Copy and paste some text into the document
3. Print the document
4. Now you can see the size of each paper particle

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Cons of P7 paper shredders

The advantage of a P-7 shredder is of course that you can shred any document into unreadable and non-reconstructable particles. This is very helpful for destroying top-secret information.

But a P-7 shredder also has some disadvantages to be aware of:

• Most expensive type of paper shredder
• Slower than less secure shredders
• Maximum sheet capacity is lower compared to similar less secure shredders
• More dust particles
• More frequent maintenance is needed

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See a DIN 663399 P7 paper shredder in action:

 

DIN 663399 P7 shredder

 

More about paper shredders

• Read our full guide on paper shredders
• Paper Shredder Security Levels DIN 66399
• Best micro-cut shredders