Supported mechanisms of data wipe-out

Category: Software Basics

The system supports two levels of data wipe-out, compliant with the document NIST Special Publication 800-88 rev 1:

CLEAR methods SATA SATA SSD NVMe
Overwriting the medium X X X
PURGE methods SATA SATA SSD NVMe
Firmware level erase X X X

Person responsible for the data wipe-out in the organization may decide on the further allocation of the hard drive containing data impossible to erase on the required level. Particularly, such disk may be submitted for overall mechanical destruction.

In case of  SATA interface disks, before the commencement of wiping the system detects whether the drive supports Device Configuration Overlay (DCO) mechanism and follows ATA DEVICE CONFIGURATION RESTORE instruction. Additionally, the system checks whether the Host Protected Area (HPA) mechanism was used in the disk and when it’s detected, the system resets the available addressable sectors to default settings.

Medium overwriting

This method relies on saving a chosen data pattern on all addressable hard drive sectors.

The system operator can choose among particular options of the pattern being used:

  • the pattern (only zeros, only ones, random number from the range 0x00-0xFF)

  • quantity of run (from 1 to 16)

  • reversing the sequence in subsequent runs

For USB drives and SD cards WIPERAPP system uses two pass overwrite.

Detailed configuration of the way to erase data with this method, optimal for securing the required level of safety, should be established procedurally inside the organization.

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