A cross-cut shredder, also known as a confetti-cut shredder, offers a higher level of security compared to a strip-cut shredder. It cuts documents both vertically and horizontally, creating small, diamond-shaped or rectangular pieces that are significantly more difficult to reassemble. For a corporate policy concerned with the secure destruction of documents, which may contain sensitive or confidential information, the cross-cut method provides a necessary level of protection against data reconstruction. This aligns with the principle of rendering information unrecoverable, a key goal in media sanitization.

A. Strip-cut shredder: This method cuts documents into long, parallel strips. These strips are relatively easy to reconstruct, either manually or with software, making it unsuitable for sensitive corporate documents.

C. Cross-hatch shredder: This is not a standard industry term for a type of paper shredder. It is likely a distractor option intended to sound similar to the correct term.

D. Cris-cross shredder: This is not a standard industry term for a type of paper shredder. It is a distractor option meant to confuse the test-taker with the correct "cross-cut" terminology.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2014). Special Publication 800-88 Revision 1: Guidelines for Media Sanitization.

Section 2.5, "Destruction," states that physical destruction techniques should be used to "render Target Data recovery infeasible using state of the art laboratory techniques." Cross-cut shredding more effectively meets this requirement for paper media than strip-cut shredding by creating smaller, harder-to-reassemble particles. The international standard DIN 66399, often referenced in security contexts, classifies shredders by security levels (P-1 to P-7), where cross-cut shredders achieve higher security levels (typically P-3/P-4) appropriate for confidential data.

2. University of California, Berkeley, Information Security Office. (n.d.). Securely Deleting Data.

In its guidance on physical media destruction, the office recommends, "For paper, use a cross-cut shredder which is more secure than a strip-cut shredder." This reflects the accepted best practice in academic and enterprise environments for protecting sensitive information on physical documents.

3. Syracuse University. (n.d.). IT Policy: Secure Data and Device Disposals.

The policy specifies requirements for destroying physical media containing confidential data. It states, "Paper documents containing confidential data must be destroyed by... cross-cut shredding." This illustrates a direct application of the principle in a formal institutional policy, establishing cross-cut shredding as the standard for secure document disposal.