In the data sanitization industry, the term DoD 5220.22-M is often used and that refers to the ‘DoD standard’. This is the software that is used to erase the previously stored data in the hard drive. This is among the simplest technique as it rewrites the same data but uses the pattern of zeros.
Sanitization method of DoD 5220.22-M
The wipe method of DoD 5220.22-M is to overwrite the previous information on the hard drive with patterns of ones and zeros. The reason behind doing this is to assemble the original data cannot be recoverable.
3 pass method
Go through the following steps to understand this method in detail:
- Pass 1: Overwrite zeros for all addressable locations available on the hard disk drive.
- Pass 2: Overwrite ones for all addressable locations available on the hard disk drive.
- Pass 3: Overwrite random characters for all the addressable locations available on the hard disk drive.
- To verify the final write pass.
DoD 5220.22-M will enable the recovery of any of the meaningful data from the drive that is either from a software-based recovery method or hardware-based recovery method. Moreover, at the 3rd pass one can write 97 instead of a random character.
7 pass method
Moreover, there’s also a seven pass procedure of DoD 5220.22-M and that is as follows:
- Pass 1: Write 1s for all the addressable locations available on the HDD.
- Pass 2: Write 0s for all the addressable locations available on the HDD.
- Pass 3: Write random character for all the addressable locations available on HDD.
- Pass 4: Again write a random character for all the addressable locations available on HDD.
- Pass 5: Write 0s again.
- Pass 6: Write 1s again.
- Pass 7: rewrite the random characters.
- The final verification pass procedure.
About DoD 5220.22-M
The DoD stands for the department of defence and it is considered the best for data destruction software. The needs for the good data destruction software are that it should support Random data, write zero, secure erase, and Schneier. Coming to DoD 5220.22-M has all of the features that good data destruction software should have.
This erasing data software has been trusted and used by a lot of people across the world. But according to new updates, the US department of defence does not use this software anymore.
The hidden truth of DoD 5220.22-M
Following are some reasons that why the DoD 5220.22-M has been replaced by other sanitization standards:
- DoD 5220.22-M can access the physical and logical addresses of the hard disk drive but it has the limits when it comes to storage devices based on flash memory.
- The flash memory-based devices consist of more physical capacity compared to logical ones. Moreover, such devices also have opaque firmware by which the advanced striker can detect the data even after overwriting with DoD 5220.22-M.
- The DoD 5220.22-M is not considered for the SSD that is a solid-state drive.
- The members of the Canadian standard association including the central intelligence, nuclear regulatory commission, the department of energy, and the department of defence does not permit the use of DoD 5220.22-M.
In the nutshell
The DoD 5220.22-M is still the most used software for wiping out the data from the hard disk drive. In the digital era, one must have to look for the security of sensitive information. Hence, you can make your sensitive information secure with the help of this three-pass procedure of DoD 5220.22-M.