Re-Thinking DoD (5220.22M) Media Sanitization Guidelines
The DoD 5220.22-M standard for erasing or wiping data from a hard drive emerged early on in the evolving electronic data destruction business. A classic case of echo chamber knowledge distribution, the de facto adaption of this process was more of a marketing phenomenon than it was the result of any official policy supported by the Department of Defense.
- The U.S. Department of Defense no longer references DoD 5220.22- M as a method for secure HDD erasure
- Regulations and certification programs now cite NIST SP 800-88 media erasure guidelines
- Multiple overwrite passes can waste time and money
- "Approved by DoD" claims are misleading
- Independent data erasure verification has moved to the forefront of certified compliance oversight