NIST vs DoD – Which is More Preferable?

Summary – While moving towards digital evolution, data has become the utmost importance of an individual. Everyone wants to keep it safe. Providing safety to sensitive data is the top priority for organizations worldwide. The leading data sanitization standards are the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Known as NIST. On the other hand, the Department of Defense known as DoD.

Both of them are the most important guidelines for the organization to secure data sanitization. This guide will clear all your confusion between NIST 800-88 and DoD 5220.22-M which is better for business. For  doing this, don’t go anywhere and read this article till the end to get the clear idea.

NIST vs DoD Data Erasure Standards – A Quick Comparison

The below NIST vs DoD standards which are widely used for data erasure aims to highlight major differences between both of them.

Parameters	NIST (800-88)	DoD (5220.22-M)
First Presence	2006	1995
Latest Update	December 2014	February 2006
Data Erasure Methods	Clear, Purge, and Destroy	3 to 7 Passes for overwriting
Efficiency	Effective for vast storage types	Less effective and inefficient for SSDs
Certain Erasure	Yes (certification and verification both)	Yes (only Hard Drives)
Cost Concern	Low as 1 write pass is enough	high as 3 to 7 pass are required

Should you opt NIST 800-88 or DoD 5220.22-M?

For business purposes, the implementation of these data erasure standards is to secure sensitive information and prevent potential data breaches. However, choosing the right standard for your work requires time and effort.

You need to consider these following points to choose which standard is best suitable for your work and support your workflow.

1. The latest version of the NISPOM (DoD 5220.22-M) does not have 3 & 7 pass as a suggested data erasure method. As, organizations are involving hard drive technology and universal use of flash drives increases such as SSDs which inclined them towards NIST 800-88.
2. The updated guidelines of NIST, it clearly suggests only one write pass is sufficient for securing data sanitization. It is examined as the safest method for overwriting data, after this the verification part for the overwrite. It ensures that every storage location has been overwritten to secure data privacy.

So, the choice between NIST 800-88 and DoD 5220.22-M data destruction standards depends upon various aspects, including the protection of sensitive information, types of storage media used, and operational ability. So, analyze all the aspects from the article and select the best data erasure standard which satisfies your point of work.

Pursuing NIST and DoD Standards – Favorable Solution

Whether you choose NIST or DoD data erasure standards for fulfilling your needs, SysTools Data Wipe Software is an effective tool which provides you with 20+ global standards for data erasure methods to ensure that your data has been wiped permanently from multiple storage devices or external hard drive like HDDs, SDDs, USB drive, and from mobile devices. It is a certified wiping program for absolute data destruction to protect high sensitive data. This tool generates data destruction reports after the audit trail is completed.

What is NIST?

For your information, we have defined the NIST erasure algorithm as NIST 800-88. This standard provides an effective approach to data sanitization. The single-write method is more cost-effective than the DoD standard which has more heavy resources involved in the process. Therefore, organizations are aiming to reduce the operational costs. So, they are inclined towards the NIST 800-88. This method is faster than individually overwriting each block and a more efficient approach to remove the data from different storage devices.

Technical Strive to Digitally Incline towards NIST 800-88

The NIST 800-88 compliance is a widely used data sanitization standard. So, here are the reasons below to prefer NIST 800-88 over DoD 5220.22 M standard.

1. NIST 800-88 covers vast storage devices like mobile devices, SSDs, magnetic drives, flash memory and more. It ensures that all types of data storage devices are stored under a single standard.
2. As the technology is becoming more advanced, one overwrite pass is enough (in the case of SSDs). It helps in reducing the data sanitization time with minimal costs and resources.
3. NIST guidelines are updated regularly to catch up with the latest technology associated with data and storage media for wiping, and physical destruction.
4. Global payment card standards, such as PCI DSS, and the international standardization organization’s ISO 27040 also recommend media sanitization techniques based on data erasure methods.

What is the DoD 5220.22-M Standard?

DoD 5220.22-M standard is the part of the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual which is known as NISPOM for removing data to prevent unauthorized access to enhance data privacy. This method writes over existing data with specific patterns which involve multiple passes. It is most effective for magnetic media such as floppy disks, tape drives, and hard drives. It is designed in such a way that the data is deleted permanently and data recovery is impossible.

Limitations of DoD 5220.22-M Standard

So, here are the drawbacks which are being highlighted in the following steps:

1. This method takes more time and is resource-intensive. It could take hours or even days to completely overwrite and ensure data security.
2. It relies on multi-pass overwriting which is less effective on storage media like SSDs.
3. By overwriting it will not completely erase all the data especially on drives.
4. It is not revised as frequently to catch up with advanced data storage media and tools.

Conclusion

In summary, NIST 800-88 and DoD 5220.22-M both are recognized standards for securing data erasure, NIST standard is a more efficient and preferable option. It requires only one write pass to overwrite data for data sanitization and covers a vast range of storage devices which makes it more cost-effective than the DoD standard. Also, it is necessary for the organization to analyze all the aspects and select the best standard which satisfies your needs and data security purposes.