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As the owner of a business you’ve no doubt heard of the PCI regulations and requirements, but are puzzled as to just what exactly are PCI DSS Compliant shredding machines?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI DSS is a governing body created by some of the world’s leading financial institutions. This body has in recent years developed a list of requirements by which all companies that make use of credit card payments to administer their firm need to comply. These procedures guarantee that any data which the consumer releases to the company is kept secure and safe and handled properly.

Being PCI DSS compliant means that your company needs to follow the set practices and standards when it comes to making secure credit card transactions and it also includes the way any details are handled post transaction. These methods are put in place to guarantee that consumer’s data is kept secure and safe from identity theft

The council also states that every records which contain every form of the client’s personal information such as, but not limited to their identify, social protection number, home or work address, phone number, and also any other personal, medical or financial information must be disposed of accordingly. It is stated in the guidelines that these details must be shredded prior to disposal and not only that but the paper shredder itself must be of PCI standards.

This may seem trivial but it is a sad fact that for the most part, dumpster diving is legal and many courts have ruled that any items, including records, which are found in the rubbish are in the public domain as long as the rubbish cans are on public property. By shredding the data you are making sure that the data is unreadable and useless to every criminals out there.

A cross cut shredding machine is the recommended standard of PCI DSS as opposed to simply cutting the paper into strips. They shred paper even further to dimensions of roughly 1/4″ x 1/2″. This smaller shred provides a higher amount of security and the smaller cuts mean that the shreds take up less space as well

It is important to dispose of any cardholder records in the prescribed matter as soon as your organization has no further use for it. The regulations state that the document shredding machine to be used must be a cross-cut paper shredder or you can use a certified shredding service. It is not advisable to simply throw these records away in the garbage as they can be found by criminals and your company will also then be classed as non compliant and could face a hefty fine.

Buy PCI DSS compliant shredders at shredderpedia.