Data Sanitization Guidelines & Compliance

At NV Recycling, we strictly adhere to industry-leading data sanitization standards to ensure your confidential information and sensitive business records are completely protected or permanently destroyed.

NIST.SP.800-88 Standards (Clear, Purge & Destroy)

Originally developed in 2006 and revised in 2014, NIST Special Publication 800-88 is the primary data sanitization standard recognized by U.S. government agencies, defense contractors, and enterprise organizations. It covers a full spectrum of storage media, including magnetic hard drives, modern solid-state drives (SSDs), flash storage, mobile devices, and server drives.
Factors determining the appropriate sanitization method:

• Data Confidentiality: The sensitivity level of the stored information.
• Media Type: Magnetic HDDs, flash memory, NVMe SSDs, or optical storage.
• Confidentiality Risk: Potential exposure risks associated with media disposal or reuse.
• Media Destination: Whether the device is designated for internal reuse, refurbishment/resale, or physical destruction.

The Three NIST Sanitization Tiers:

1. Clear: Logical overwriting of user-accessible storage locations using certified software tools across all addressable sectors.
2. Purge: Executing controller-level physical commands (such as cryptographic erasure or block erase) to render target data recovery infeasible, even using state-of-the-art laboratory techniques.
3. Destroy: Physical destruction of the media via industrial shredding, disintegration, degaussing, or smelting to prevent physical or technical reconstruction.

​DoD 5220.22-M ​Standard

The DoD 5220.22-M standard (National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual) remains one of the most widely recognized overwriting protocols for traditional magnetic hard drives (HDDs).
The DoD Wiping Process:

• 3-Pass Overwrite: Overwrites all addressable locations with binary zeroes, binary ones, and a pseudorandom bit character sequence.
• Final Pass Verification: Requires formal verification after the final overwrite pass to confirm complete data erasure.
• Recovery Prevention: Erasing magnetic media via DoD 5220.22-M prevents standard software or hardware recovery techniques from restoring residual files.

Certificate of Data Destruction

To assist with your organization's regulatory compliance (such as HIPAA, FACTA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and FERPA audits), NV Recycling provides a formal Certificate of Data Destruction upon request (fees apply). This documentation verifies that all serial-numbered hard drives and media assets were processed and destroyed in strict accordance with federal data security standards.

Hard Drive Data Destruction

Other Storage Media Destruction