What do you do with your ID card printer ribbons after use? Chances are you're just tossing them in the trash.
Not a great idea, because whether you have a direct-to-card or reverse-transfer printer, used ribbons contain imprints of every piece of data that was printed on ID cards.

When printing on cards, data is transferred from the print head to the ribbon, before ultimately printing to the card. However, the used ribbon contains a mirror image of every card that ran through the printer.
If you don't properly dispose of the used ribbon, full names, account numbers, barcodes, and other sensitive information can easily be stolen. For example, employee ID badges, membership cards, and payment cards (gift cards, debit cards, etc.) are especially vulnerable because of the type of data made available on the cards.
Fortunately, there are two solid options for properly disposing used ribbon from your ID card printer:
- The SMART-BIT printer ribbon shredder from IDP takes your used printer ribbons and slices them up into a thin, confetti-like pieces, making them completely useless to scammers and counterfeiters.
- If you have an existing industrial office shredder, the Rippa from IdentiSys is an attachment accessory that sits on top of the shredder to simultaneously shred up to four ribbons at a time by threading between two rolls of standard, commercially available paper.
Secure Printing Option
Remove the need to properly dispose ribbon altogether by printing on the Fargo DTC1500 by HID Global. The DTC1500 has a unique resin scramble data protection feature that essentially hides data by making used panels unreadable.
Protecting data by properly destroying used card printer ribbons is often overlooked and can potentially be harmful to a business. Fortunately, there are disposal methods for used ribbons that can drastically lower the chance of such a data breach.
IdentiSys is North America's largest full-service identification and security solutions provider. For more information about card printer security and about these ribbon disposal options, contact us to connect with a security and identification expert.