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Data Sanitization & Destruction Methods

Media sanitization is the process of making data recovery from a storage device infeasible, through verified erasure or physical destruction. The international reference is NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 (Guidelines for Media Sanitization), finalized on September 26, 2025 — and it is the standard InteSys's process is aligned with.

Last updated October 2026.

The three NIST SP 800-88 levels

The standard organizes sanitization into three levels, from lightest to final:

Level (NIST 800-88) How it works When to use it
Clear Overwriting data through the device's normal interfaces, with verification Media staying inside the organization, in a low-risk setting
Purge Techniques that resist laboratory recovery: firmware Secure Erase, cryptographic erase (discarding the key) and, on magnetic media, degaussing Equipment to be reused, resold or donated — preserves the asset's value
Destroy Shredding, crushing or disintegrating the media so no reconstruction is possible Failed media, highly sensitive data, or contractual/regulatory requirements

Clear and Purge preserve the device. Destroy eliminates it. The choice depends on data sensitivity, the equipment's destination and your security policy — and all three produce a per-serial record.

Rev. 2, not Rev. 1 or DoD 5220.22-M

Much of the data destruction material in Brazil still cites NIST 800-88 Rev. 1 (2014) or the legacy multi-pass DoD 5220.22-M overwrite standard. Rev. 2 has been current since September 2025 and treats sanitization as an organizational program — with policy, verification and records — rather than a standalone overwrite algorithm.

SSD and NVMe notice

In flash memory, the controller redistributes writes across the chips (wear leveling) and keeps reserved blocks invisible to the operating system. In practice:

  • ordinary overwriting cannot guarantee elimination — the system writes to logical addresses, while old copies of the data may remain in physical blocks it cannot even see;
  • degaussing has no effect at all — flash chips do not respond to magnetic fields;
  • the right path is verified cryptographic erase or the drive's own firmware Secure Erase, or physical destruction of the media.
Media Overwrite Degaussing Secure Erase / cryptographic Physical destruction
Hard disk drive (SATA/SAS) Effective, with verification Effective (renders drive unusable) Effective Effective
SSD / NVMe / M.2 Insufficient Ineffective Effective, with verification Effective
Backup tape (LTO) Slow Effective Not applicable Effective
Smartphone / tablet Insufficient Ineffective Manufacturer cryptographic reset, with verification Effective

When verification fails

Media that fails sanitization verification — a drive with bad sectors, an SSD that rejects the Secure Erase command — cannot be treated as erased. Best practice is to route it to physical destruction and record the event on that serial number's certificate.

Does formatting a hard drive erase the data?

No. Formatting, even a "full" format, rebuilds the file system structure; the data stays on the disk and can be recovered with free tools. The same applies to deleting partitions or factory-resetting a phone without active encryption. Only verified sanitization or physical destruction guarantees permanent elimination — and only documented sanitization produces the evidence an audit or the LGPD requires.

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