Data Sanitization Methods – Ensuring Secure Data Erasure

Summary: With the passage of time, where data breaches and cyber attacks are increasingly common. So, Data sanitization plays a vital role in securing data privacy. This process involves technological advancements from any storage media, ensuring that your sensitive data is permanently destroyed. In this article we will explore various data sanitization methods, its importance, and its implementation for the method for effective data erasure.

What is Data Sanitization?

Data sanitization is the process of permanently deleting, or destroying data on a storage device, to ensure that the data is irrecoverable. Initially when data is deleted from a media storage device, it is not completely erased and can be recovered by attackers and have access to the devices. It somewhere shows the lack of security and data privacy. By using the sanitization methods the data which is left in storage media will be cleansed, and no data can be recovered even with advanced forensics tools.

Let’s know the Need of Using Data Sanitization Methods 

Nowadays, data is like gold. Everyone wants to keep it safe. It is an individual asset for individuals and organizations. As, this data can fall into the wrong hands. Data sanitization, also known as media sanitization, are the ways to destroy data so that it can’t be retrieved. Every organization needs a robust data destruction policy as a part of data management to be safe from accidental data breaches and minimize damages from cyber-attacks.

In 2022, significant fines totaling €19,447,300 were imposed across Europe for various violations, including breaches of Article 17. The largest fine was imposed on Google LLC in Spain, valuing € 10 Million, on 18th May 2022. It is important to note that GDPR was the catalyst that prompted the enactment of data privacy laws in the US, starting with the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and followed by other states. These laws align very closely with GDPR, so strictness for non-compliance is severe. Data sanitization plays a critical role in all these regulations and will be a key component of the upcoming US federal data privacy law, the ADPPA (American Data Privacy and Protection Act).

The ultimate goal is to ensure the destroyed data can’t be accessed. It is important for various scenarios given below:

1. Personal information like bank details, security pins, or any media or social records to prevent unauthorized access to avoid data breaches.

2. Ensuring the secure erasure of data can gain customer trust and confidence towards our data sanitization methods.

3. There are laws made like GDPR, CCPA requires that the data is permanently destroyed in order to maintain users data privacy. Not following these rules can lead to penalties.

4. It allows for the secure reuse of storage devices by reducing electronic waste.

Data Sanitization Methods – Effective Data Erasure

So, there are four primary methods to achieve data sanitization such as physical destruction, data erasure, cryptographic erasure, and data masking.

Data Erasure

It is the method to hide original content with updated content like to write 0s and 1s on every sector of storage equipment, to protect sensitive information and ensure no previous data is left.

Pros: This is the reliable form of data sanitization because it ensures 100% of the data was replaced with this algorithm.

Cons: As this is a time-consuming process and seeing the lifetime of the device it is difficult to carry out.

Example Use Case: One option that health care providers have for making sure that they stay within the law when they use physical storage devices to hold personal information about patients is to use a program called Data Erasure.

Cryptographic Erasure

This process involves encrypting data on the device and then making the encryption keys inaccessible. Without the encryption keys, data cannot be decrypted which makes it impossible to recover.

Pros: It is an effective and favored method to sanitize storage media devices, especially for those users who contain highly sensitive data.

Cons: Cryptographic erasure faces challenges because it depends on the built-in encryption features, which may not always be suitable for the task. It can also fail due to user errors, issues with key management, or unauthorized access by individuals who may obtain the key before it is securely deleted.

Example Use Case: E-commerce firms, which encrypt consumer data, are able to discard old transaction records safely without spoiling recent ones through the use cryptography erasure.

As, this method does not meet the regulatory standard of data sanitization methods because in the end the data remains on the device.

Physical Destruction

The most obvious way is to physically damage the storage media or the device. While, degaussing means erasing data on magnetic media by applying an Armstrong magnetic field.

There are two common ways to destroy storage media:

1. Apply a degaussing machine that generates a strong magnetic field which irreversibly erases data from hard disk drives and tapes.

2. By using industrial machines to break storage media into small pieces.

Pros: It offers immediate and definitive assurance of data sanitization.

Cons: This approach is not eco-friendly because it damages the storage media in a manner that prevents reuse or resale. Also, they are harmful for the environment and are expensive to carry out.

Example Use Case: Defense firms and government agencies with sensitive information may choose physical destruction as a way of completely preventing any possibility of data recovery.

Degaussing

This process uses a machine to generate a magnetic field that disrupts the magnetic domain on storage media devices, making the data unreadable and irrecoverable.

Pros: This process is used for bulk data sanitization methods.

Cons: It is not suitable for all storage media like SSDs, because its effectiveness varies.

Example Use Case: Financial Institutions using shredding machines, degaussing can dispose of massive amounts of old files very fast.

Overwriting

It involves replacing existing data with random patterns of information to ensure secure data. Various algorithms ensure complete data security.

Pros: This method leaves out data storage medium intact and reusable.

Cons: It can be a time-consuming process especially for larger drives, and it may not always ensure complete data erasure.

Example Use Case: Tech businesses with fleets of leased devices are able to disinfect devices before presenting them back when using overwriting in order to erase any company’s personal information or data on them.

Shredding

It is the method that involves physically destroying storage media to make sure the data is unrecoverable. It involves mechanically cutting storage devices into small pieces.

Pros: It offers physical confirmation that your data has been destroyed.

Cons: It can be environmentally harmful and wasteful, producing e-waste that is not easily recyclable.

Example Use Case: To minimize legal liabilities, law firms that have old storage devices which contain sensitive client information can make use of shredding to ensure that data is totally destroyed.

Electromagnetic Destruction

This method uses a strong electromagnetic field, to disrupt the magnetic properties of storage media. It renders data stored on devices such as hard drives and magnetic tapes unreadable, thereby guaranteeing secure data destruction.

Pros: It is a fast method, particularly effective for magnetic tapes and some hard drives.

Cons: It requires specialized equipment, and it may not be effective for all storage types.

Example Use Case: Research institutions with data on experimental findings can use electromagnetic destruction to prevent intellectual property theft while updating their storage infrastructure.

Data Masking

A common technique used in obedience schemes is data masking, which some compliances quite mandate. For instance, changing real customer names to some randomly picked other seems as one of the ways it can be done. Shuffling characters around can be one system of doing that while another method might involve replacing every word altogether thereby changing them entirely besides using terms that are generic instead such synonyms like city states, countries capitals post codes etc.

Masking is considered more secure than encryption and takes less time because all the characters will be altered at once hence no one will be able to remember any blocks of text by heart without first decrypting it; otherwise they might forget some parts which are very important during passwords creation due to complexity issues related there with. Alternatively, this involves heuristic algorithms that restructure the texts using generative models. It is highly effective for data sanitization, it sanitizes data on the device while it is still in use.

Pros: It reduces the risk of data breaches by making actual data inaccessible.

Cons: Implementing this method can be complex and may require specialized tools and expertise.

Example Use Case: The financial institution decided to make a new bank application and they decided to use data masking to protect sensitive customer information during the development and testing phases.

Best Practices for Data Sanitization

There are some parameters you should keep in mind while choosing the data sanitization methods.

1. Examine the data sensitivity based on that select a sanitization method that meets your standard of work.

2. Verify data erasure using verification tools to ensure it has been irreversibly erased.

3. Ensure the methods which you have chosen meet the industry standard such as NIST 800-88 and meet the regulatory concerns like GDPR and HIPAA.

NIST Guidelines for Data Sanitization

Organizations can implement each method according to their specific needs and the desired level of data sanitization. Moreover, they recommends that organizations decide on the appropriate data sanitization methods by taking into account the following factors:

1. The type of information and its confidentiality level.

2. The type of storage medium and its manufacturing guidelines.

3. Consider the future use of the media, whether you will reuse or resell it.

A key step in the NIST guidelines is verifying the effectiveness of data sanitization. NIST outlines two verification methods:

• Checking after each sanitization step.
• Using representative sampling, which involves randomly selecting a subset of media to confirm sanitization.

Furthermore, verification also include:

• Inspecting the equipment (such as degaussers, incinerators, and shredders) used in the sanitization.
• Verify the expertise of personnel during the sanitization.
• Confirming the sanitization process in the media.

On-Target Solution to Achieve Effective Data Sanitization

All the Data sanitization methods described in the article are somewhat lacking in their category, also have limitations which can put the data at risk and have the possibility of data going into the wrong hands. To avoid this you can go with this efficient solution SysTools Data Wipe Software to tackle those drawbacks and provides many advanced features and can overwrite complete data and leaving no scope for data recovery. It can alter algorithms multiple times and have various data wiping methods to ensure effective data sanitization.

Features of This Automated Tool

• It removes all data residue (data remanence) or classified data spills.
• Use Data Wipe tool Quick selection (File & Folder) to burn out traces of data recovery.
• Having Compliance with more than 20+ global standards including NIST, ISO, US DoD 5220.22-M, and more.
• Wipe all data from multiple storage devices such as HDD, SSD, SATA, PATA, NVMe, etc.

Conclusion

Protecting data is paramount, and the recent increase in federal and state data privacy laws highlights this importance. Data sanitization methods  will remain a key element in maintaining data security and privacy. Implementing these practices can help you in managing data more efficiently and securely.