Are you wondering whether deleting sensitive information from your data storage devices is enough to make it irretrievable? The short answer is: Not necessarily. When you delete data, all you are often doing is removing the pointer to it. Erasure, on the other hand, can make it inaccessible – but this technique doesn’t work for all types of storage media. So, how can you make sure you actually destroy the data using the highest standards so it cannot be retrieved?
In this article, we will go through all the differences between data erasure (or data wiping) and data destruction. First, we will cover what each process involves and the various techniques associated with its methods. Then, we will show you how data destruction services can take care of all your data deletion and destruction needs. So, let’s get started.
What is Data Erasure?
Data erasure, also known as data sanitization, refers to overwriting existing data stored in a device to make it irrecoverable. In other words, this process ensures the original data you had saved in a drive or device is no longer accessible, but you can still use the storage media after the process is complete.
Data erasure typically overwrites the existing sensitive data using random or predefined patterns. The goal is to prevent unauthorized individuals from seeing it. This type of erasure can help your company or organization prevent data breaches and ensure you remain compliant with data protection regulations and is therefore widely used by companies all around the world.
The process of erasing data usually involves the following steps:
- First, you will need to choose the appropriate software. Many data erasure tools are recognized as highly effective and compliant with industry standards.
- Then, you must verify the storage media (SSD, tape, USB drive, etc.) and choose the erasure method and settings.
- The software will overwrite the data based on the selected settings, usually through random patterns or predefined algorithms across the entire storage space and hidden or reserved areas. In most cases, you will want to do multiple overwriting passes.
- Lastly, after the erasure process is completed, the software will verify the success by checking the data is no longer recoverable.
What is Data Destruction?
Data destruction, on the other hand, refers to the process of physically or irreversible destroying a storage media and making its data completely unrecoverable and inaccessible to third parties.
Unlike data erasure, which focuses on overwriting, data destruction methods will typically also make the media itself unusable (usually by disintegrating, slicing, or shredding it). You will most likely employ data destruction when the storage media is no longer needed, and you must ensure that the data cannot be accessed or recovered. This method is commonly used for disposing of old hard drives, tapes, CDs, or other media containing sensitive or classified information.
Data destruction is commonly used to comply with data protection regulations, maintain confidentiality, and mitigate the risk of data breaches.
The Relationship Between Data Destruction and Compliance
Many data protection regulations, like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States, require organizations to implement measures to protect personal and sensitive data throughout their lifecycle. This includes the process of securely destroying the data when it’s no longer needed.
Some compliance regulations require organizations to establish data retention policies specifying how long data should be retained before being securely destroyed. Compliance and data security frameworks often involve audits and assessments to evaluate an organization’s data protection practices. So, proper data destruction practices can significantly reduce the likelihood of unauthorized access to sensitive data and mitigate the risk of data breaches.
Data Destruction and Physical Destruction Techniques
There are various methods of data destruction. Some of the most common ones include the following:
- Shredding: Shredders break the storage media into small pieces, rendering it irreparable. Different machines can be designed to work with different types of media, such as hard drives, optical discs, or tapes.
- Degaussing: Degaussing is a method that uses a strong magnetic field to disrupt the magnetic properties of the media. It can thus erase the data stored on magnetic media like hard drives or tapes by demagnetizing their surface, making it nearly impossible to recover the original data.
- Pulverizing: The media is crushed into small particles using specialized machines. This method ensures that the media is completely destroyed and makes data recovery infeasible.
- Disintegration: Disintegration involves breaking the storage device into small fragments using mechanical devices. This method is particularly effective for optical discs and solid-state drives (SSDs).
Choosing Between Physical Destruction and Degaussing
Physical destruction and degaussing are two distinct methods of data destruction. However, their main difference lies in the type of media each specializes in.
Because degaussing uses a strong magnetic field to erase the data stored on the media, it can only be used on magnetic storage devices. Thus, degaussing is not effective on SSDs because they instead rely on flash memory chips. Optical media, such as CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs, also needs to be physically destroyed through shredding, breaking, or incineration.
If you want to learn more about the process of degaussing and which media it can be used on, check our article “Why Degaussing a Hard Drive Doesn’t Always Work.”
Data Destruction Benefits
Data destruction can offer many benefits to both individuals and organizations. We have mentioned how they can be an excellent way to comply with data protection regulations and requirements, but there are other advantages of relying on these methods.
Proper critical data destruction can significantly mitigate risk by reducing the chance of a data breach and the associated financial and reputational damage. So, by permanently removing the data, your organization can minimize the chance of unauthorized access or accidental exposure of client information or old data.
Data destruction can also be integral to effective data life cycle management, ensuring that data is securely disposed of when it is no longer needed. By adequately managing data from creation to destruction, your company can optimize storage resources, maintain data integrity, and adhere to privacy principles.
Many organizations sell old storage devices, so data destruction is essential to protect their information. By doing so, you will also be showing your customers you can correctly protect their personal information and keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
Our Data Destruction Products
At Phiston Technologies, we believe in the secure destruction of data, innovation, and proactive product development. That’s why we offer various end-of-life data destruction solutions engineered to respond to the rapid growth in information technology.
Our product range includes destroyers, disintegrates, and degaussers, all of which are designed to exceed industry standards, including:
- MediaVise® Compact HDD Destroyer: An NSA-evaluated and approved hard drive (HDD) destroyer to fully sanitize drives in-house and in less than 30 seconds.
- MediaVise® Compact SSD Destroyer: A compact desktop data destruction solution with specially designed plates and interlocking pyramidal teeth, ideal for SSD media.
- MediaDice® All Media Disintegrator A10: A secure disintegrator capable of securely destroying all types of media on site, including hard disks, solid state drives, laptops, and switches.
- MediaVise® Rackmount Dual Sanitizer: An innovative 2-in-1 hard disk destruction solution that uses a minimum of 2 Tesla to degauss drives and ensure data privacy. All media is entirely destroyed and sanitized in less than 25 seconds.
Our products are trusted by some of the largest tech organizations in the world, including Facebook, Amazon, IBM, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To learn more about these machines and our data destruction services, contact us for a quote today.
