Which is the better data erasure standard, DOD or NIST?
Regardless of your preference, you can erase data from your hard drives using DoD, NIST, or any other standards. In accordance with 24 worldwide erasing standards, including DoD and NIST, BitRaser Drive Eraser Software satisfies your data erasure needs.
It is crucial for businesses to make sure that sensitive client data is safely deleted when their work is finished or when the customer requests it in the age of security breaches and data leaks.For instance, “the right to be forgotten” is a legal concept in Europe. According to these and related rules, a business must comply with a user’s request to remove the user’s data from its possession.
As a result, businesses occasionally find themselves in a situation where they must wipe data. To avoid any negative consequences in the future, most IT departments suggest adhering to industry-specific guidelines for data erasure.
Here you can read more details about the two standards: The DOD 5220.22-m Data Wipe Standard and NIST 800-88 purge for data cleansing.
Which Standards Are Most Frequently Used?
The DOD 5220.22-M 3 & 7 Pass and the NIST 800-88 standard, which come from both agencies, are by far the most extensively used data erasure standards. Even within themselves, the DOD and NIST have standards of varied strength.Both of the standards have the advantage of being military grade, as the government also uses them.
The DOD 5220.22-m 3/ 7P standard was first developed in 1995 and has subsequently undergone a few revisions. In contrast, the NIST 800-88 standard is much more recent, having been implemented in 2006 and then changed in 2014 to take into account advancements.
In summary, the DOD protocol is somewhat obsolete but more widely used than the NIST standard for data erasers. However, there is still much debate about which one is superior between DOD and NIST.
The DOD vs. NIST debate: Which Is Better?
It’s not as easy to answer the questions of which one is better than the other and why there isn’t just one solution to the DOD vs. NIST argument. Because of the 3/ 7 overwrites, it is thought that the DOD requirements are a little more thorough in terms of data erasure, although the DOD standard can cause havoc on some kinds of storage devices.
To avoid dramatically shortening the lifespan of your solid-state drive, avoid using the DOD standard if you have an SSD. People with older hardware (such as hard disc drives or hybrid drives) are better suited to employing the DOD standard.
In a nutshell: The standard you decide to use will largely rely on the kind of storage medium you use. As a general rule, use NIST if your storage employs embedded chips (SSDs) and use DOD if it uses magnetic strips to store data (HDDs, CDs, or Tapes).
What Does The DOD Data Erasure Standard Entail?
In order to standardise (thus the name) data erasure in government agencies and assure that classified material is inaccessible even after deletion, the Department of Defense 5220.22M data erasure protocol was initially published in 1995.
You have the option of the 3-Pass or the 7-Pass. As the names imply, a disc is overwritten three times in a 3-Pass operation and seven times in a 7-Pass operation. When comparing DOD and NIST in this regard, NIST comes out on top with fewer passes than the DOD. This is done to fragment the post-deletion data beyond all recognisable form.
Following the completion of the data passes (wipes), a “verification” is performed to make sure that no trace of the original data is still available. Multiple overwrites were required because tapes and floppy discs, which are physical types of storage, would retain “crumbs” of data after an overwrite, were the original targets of the DOD 5220.22-M.
When comparing NIST and DOD in this sense, NIST is able to cover devices that DOD cannot, while DOD is unable to manage devices as effectively as NIST.
What Does The NIST Data Erasure Standard Consist Of?
Following the discovery of unbridgeable gaps for more recent systems during modification of the DOD 5220.22-m standard, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (808-88) guidelines were created in 2006. The DOD methods were expanded upon and greatly enhanced by the NIST standards, which finally became pretty much a universal norm.
Because of how effective it is, NIST is now referred to as a “data sanitization” standard rather than a “data erasure” standard. Data is deleted via a method known as “Clear, Purge, Then Destroy,” according to the NIST 800-88 manual. In 2014, NIST 800-88 underwent additional revisions to ensure that it adhered to contemporary standards, giving NIST one more advantage against DOD in the DOD vs. NIST argument.
The Final Verdict
These two reputable, powerful organisations each have their own set of rules and procedures that they use to try to give everyone involved the best and most efficient data erasure techniques they can.
As customers gain greater control over their sensitive information, businesses throughout the world are being forced to think about more stringent data deletion policies. Here, it is advised to look into specialist, dedicated software that is NIST compliant right out of the box, such as BitRaser.
