Data destruction glossary

• Certificate of Destruction (COD)
  The record issued after destruction: what was destroyed, by which method and machine, when, where, and by whom. Under NIST 800-88 it is the sanitization record; under DoDM 5205.07 it must itemize accountable SAP material and be signed by two briefed people.
• Chain of custody
  The unbroken, documented record of who controlled a piece of media from the moment it left service until it was destroyed.
• Clear, Purge, Destroy
  NIST 800-88’s three sanitization methods, in rising order of assurance. Clear defeats recovery with ordinary tools; Purge defeats laboratory recovery; Destroy makes the media unusable and the data unrecoverable.
• Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
  Unclassified information the government requires to be safeguarded, governed by 32 CFR 2002 and, for contractors, NIST 800-171 and CMMC. CUI may travel by tracked carrier; classified media may not.
• Cryptographic erase
  Sanitizing encrypted media by destroying its encryption key. Counts as Purge only when the implementation and key handling can be verified.
• Data-bearing device
  Any component that can hold data at rest: drives, SSDs, tapes, flash cards, phones, tablets, boards with soldered storage, and the hard drives inside printers and copiers.
• Degausser
  A machine that applies a magnetic field strong enough to erase magnetic media. Only degaussers on the NSA/CSS EPL are approved for classified hard drives and tape. Degaussing does nothing to flash memory.
• Disintegrator
  A machine that reduces media to particles through a sizing screen. For solid-state media the NSA requires particles of 2 mm or smaller.
• DoDM 5205.07
  The DoD (Department of War) Special Access Program Security Manual, reissued January 2025. Destruction requirements are in section 4.9.
• e-Stewards
  The Basel Action Network’s certification for electronics recyclers, with strict limits on exporting hazardous e-waste.
• Evaluated Products List (EPL)
  NSA/CSS lists of degaussers, disintegrators, and destruction devices that passed evaluation at the Center for Storage Device Sanitization Research. Models are listed by number.
• Government-furnished equipment (GFE)
  Equipment the government owns and issues to a contractor. Destroying it requires the government’s written permission first.
• HAMR (heat-assisted magnetic recording)
  A hard drive that writes to very high-coercivity media by heating it with a laser. No listed degausser can erase it; the NSA’s February 2026 manual allows only incineration for classified HAMR drives. Identified by a Class 1 laser statement on the label.
• Hard disk drive (HDD)
  Magnetic storage on spinning platters. Sanitized by degaussing and destroyed by shredding; the NSA requires both for classified drives.
• Hybrid drive
  A hard drive with solid-state cache on its circuit board. Degaussing does not reach the cache, so the board is separated and disintegrated as solid-state media.
• IEEE 2883
  The 2022 IEEE Standard for Sanitizing Storage. NIST 800-88 Rev. 2 points to it for media-specific techniques.
• IT asset disposition (ITAD)
  Retiring IT hardware end to end: inventory, data destruction, resale or recycling, and documentation.
• NAID AAA
  i-SIGMA’s certification for secure destruction providers, audited for chain of custody, personnel screening, and destruction methods.
• NIST SP 800-88
  The federal guideline for media sanitization. Revision 2 has been final since September 2025.
• NSA/CSS Policy Manual 9-12
  The NSA’s storage device sanitization manual for classified and national security media. It defines the methods behind the EPLs.
• Oersted (Oe)
  A unit of magnetic field strength. A degausser’s rating must exceed a drive’s coercivity to erase it; our LM-1 is rated to 5,000 Oe.
• Overwriting
  Writing patterns over stored data. A Clear technique on magnetic media; unreliable on SSDs, bad sectors, and hidden areas. The “DoD 5220.22-M three-pass wipe” comes from a manual that no longer exists.
• Particle size
  The largest dimension of destroyed media. The NSA requires 2 mm or less for solid-state media; the GigaBiter’s sizing screen is inside that.
• R2
  SERI’s Responsible Recycling standard for electronics recyclers, covering data security, downstream due diligence, and worker safety. The current version is R2v3.
• Sanitization
  Any process that makes the data on media unrecoverable, by Clear, Purge, or Destroy.
• Serial log
  The list of device serial numbers captured before destruction and attached to the certificate.
• Service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB)
  A federal certification for businesses at least 51 percent owned by service-disabled veterans, with set-aside contracting eligibility.
• Solid-state drive (SSD)
  Flash storage with no moving parts. Degaussing has no effect on it; NSA-level destruction means disintegration to 2 mm.
• Special Access Program (SAP)
  A DoD program with security measures beyond collateral classification. Its media follows DoDM 5205.07.
• Witnessed destruction
  Destruction performed at the owner’s site, in front of the owner’s personnel.

See a real Certificate of Destruction, annotated. Missing a term? Ask and we will add it. For the documents behind these definitions, see the primary sources on the Standards page.