Wipe Data From Your Old Media

We've covered this issue several times in different ways. Now there's more help: the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a new guide, "Guidelines for Media Sanitization," which covers this very subject. Check out the document (in PDF format) which is available at the NIST's Computer Security Center. An accompanying note about the newly published guidelines includes the following:

"This guide is intended to assist organizations and system owners in making practical sanitization decisions based on the level of sensitivity of their information. It does not, and cannot, specifically address all known types of media however; the described draft sanitization decision process can be applied universally to all forms of media and categorizations of information.
 
NIST invites public comments on the draft guideline until 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 31, 2006. Written comments on Special Publication 800-88 may be sent to Chief, Computer Security Division, Information Technology Laboratory, Attn: Comments on Draft Special Publication 800-88, NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 8930, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8930. Comments also may be submitted electronically to [email protected] "