Secure data sanitization involves purposely, permanently deleting, or destroying data from a storage device, to ensure it cannot be recovered, if the devices are going to be repurposed.
This erasure is becoming increasingly necessary as more data is transferred to cloud storage (iBridge) and stored in larger, more complex data files. Companies are adhering to and implementing fail-proof data sanitization procedures to prevent data exposure and avoid liability before decommissioning assets.
Data sanitization standards
Data sanitization is a crucial practice across various industries, but its understanding may vary among different business and government levels. A comprehensive data sanitization strategy is vital for both government work and the private sector to prevent data loss, exposure of sensitive information to competitors, and disclosure of proprietary technology.
In today’s interconnected world, adherence to specific data sanitization policies is necessary for governments, businesses, and individuals to ensure data confidentiality throughout its lifespan.
For instance, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) requires firms to have robust records retention policies and processes without prescribing a specific data storage type. Business executives must implement internal controls to guarantee the completeness, accuracy, and accessibility of their information.
Nonetheless, SOX mandates accounting firms auditing public companies to retain audit documentation for a minimum of seven years after completing the audit. Violation of this rule can result in fines up to $10 million and a potential prison sentence of 20 years. Additionally, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) focuses on safeguarding electronic personal health information.
Furthermore, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides comprehensive guidelines on data storage media sanitization in its special publication 800-88, based on an organization’s data confidentiality classification. This publication is compatible with other widely used NIST standard, SP 800-53, ensuring data security.
Data Slayer adheres to NIST 800-88, Rev. 1, and DoD data sanitization guidelines. Our technicians use sanitization software to wipe on-premise, data centers, colo centers, or at our processing facility, ensuring zero leakage. Upon completion of data cleansing, our clients receive certificates of destruction encompassing the entire wiping process and verifying erasure.
A Platinum Partnership
Data Slayer has partnered with iBridge to provide a cloud service channel for our clients. This partnership will allow you to transfer your data and IT assets to a secure and reliable infrastructure. Both Data Slayer and iBridge have over 30 years of experience in the IT industry, making this alliance a natural fit. By working together, we will be able to provide an exceptional customer experience.
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In the world of IT, the floor plan of your data center is prime real estate. Your IT team and the entire organization can benefit by optimizing this valuable space to support your current infrastructure and future growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Zero leakage is the prevention of unauthorized transmission of data from an organization to any external source, commonly known as a data break. This data can be leaked physically or electronically via hard drives, USB devices, mobile phones, etc., and could be exposed publicly or fall into the hands of a cyber criminal.
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Data sanitization systematically and permanently destroys data on storage media to make it unrecoverable for privacy, compliance, or security purposes. Unlike regular deletion, which only removes files from the directory structure, data sanitization erases every trace of information from a hard drive, making it impossible to recover.
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Data Sanitization is essential because it protects your company’s data and mitigates your risk in disposing of unwanted assets because it ensures your organization’s privacy at all times.
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The main strategies for erasing personal data from devices are physical destruction, cryptographic erasure, and data erasure.
Physical Destruction: The most common way to sanitize a device is to physically destroy the storage media or the device it is a part of—for example, destroying a hard disk or an old laptop with an embedded hard disk.
Cryptographic Erasure: This method uses public-key cryptography, with a strong key of at least 128 bits, to encrypt all the data on the device. Without the key, the data cannot be decrypted and becomes unrecoverable. Finally, the private key is discarded, effectively erasing all data on the device.
Data Erasure: This technique uses software to write random 0s and 1s on every sector of the storage equipment, ensuring no previous data is retained. This is a very reliable form of sanitization because it validates that 100% of the data was replaced, at the byte level.
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Your IT assets hold critical information — whether that is company-wide data or customer information. Sensitive data on IT assets that are obsolete or at the end of their life can be a security breach.
Read our blog post for Four Takeaways from the Morgan Stanley Debacle.
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It depends on your business needs. A large business will collect a large amount of data very quickly, so may need data cleansing every three to six months. Smaller businesses with less data are recommended to clean their data at least once a year.