ISO 21964 / DIN 66399

The ISO 21964 standard (also known as DIN 66399) defines the different protection classes, categories of data carriers, and levels of security for the destruction of media containing confidential data.

With new technologies, it has become apparent that confidential data can be stored on multiple types of media (paper, hard drives, tapes, etc.) and that their destruction can be classified according to different levels of security defined based on the difficulty of reconstructing the information after the media is destroyed. The ISO 21964 standard classifies data carriers into 6 categories, each represented by a letter.

DOWNLOAD OUR ISO 21964 GUIDE

THE DIFFERENT MEDIA TYPES

PAPER (P)

Documents, Archives

OPTIC (O)

CD, DVD, Blu-ray

Magnetic (T)

Floppy disks, credit cards, tapes,
magnetic tapes, cassettes

Hard drives (H)

Hard drives and computers (not SSD type)

Electronic (E)

Flash media, SD cards, chip cards, USB stick, SSD disk, cell phones and tablets

films (F)

Films and microfilms

DIFFERENT PROTECTION CLASSES

The ISO 21964 standard provides 3 protection classes: normal, high, very high. They determine the level of sensitivity of the data by classification (internal, confidential, or secret data) and allow everyone to know the level of security required for the destruction of their data.

CLASS 1

PROTECTION NEED: Normal
SECURITY LEVEL: 1,2,3
USE: Internal documents, accessible by a large number of employees
Examples : circulars, newsletters

CLASS 2

PROTECTION NEED: High
SECURITY LEVEL: 3,4,5
USE: Confidential documents with restricted access
Examples: personal data, memos

CLASS 3

PROTECTION NEED: Very High
SECURITY LEVEL: 4,5,6,7
USE: Secret documents, accessible only by a few employees.
Examples: R&D documents

DIFFERENT SECURITY LEVELS

NEED A DIGITAL DESTRUCTION?

GET A QUOTE