Disposal of test data

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 11/1/2006

Your test data—and especially calibration data—will likely outlive the computers that created and initially stored it. When you replace a computer, a hard drive, or other storage device that contains sensitive test data, you don't want that data to be accessed by hackers or competitors. Your company may require “sanitization” or destruction of data-storage devices.

There are many ways to destroy data before disposing of the storage media. For hard drives and flash-memory devices, you can get software that overwrites the media. Hard drives may also require deformation by smashing so that they're totally unusable. Storage media such as CD and DVD discs require outright destruction.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published guidelines for the sanitization and destruction of data and storage devices. You can download NIST's “Guidelines for Media Sanitization” at csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs.