Summary: This article cites the importance of the Certificate of Destruction (CoD) and lists its key components to help you understand the benefits of this document for meeting compliance with global data protection laws and regulations.
A Certificate of Destruction (CoD) is an audit document affirming that all confidential data stored on hard drives, tapes, SSDs, or other storage media was successfully destroyed. It ensures that the organization or the service provider destroying data is following a reliable data destruction process in compliance with global regulatory laws. A Certificate of Destruction ( aka Data Erasure Certificate) guarantees that data was destroyed with due diligence and the data cannot be recovered from the erased/destructed devices even after using an advanced forensic technique. A Data Destruction Certificate is interchangeably used with a Certificate of Erasure (CoE).
Importance of Data Destruction Certificate
A Certificate of Data Destruction acts as a pivotal document in lawsuits of data breaches to showcase that data was destroyed using a reliable tool or device from an authorized vendor that provided the CoD. Here are some of the benefits of a Certificate of Erasure (COE) that are meaningful to an organization:
Ensures 100% Data Protection
Data Destruction Certificate validates that the data stored in the storage devices was effectively destroyed. As a result, there is a zero possibility of data leakage, even in the most critical circumstances.
Helps Maintain Compliance with Legal Requirements
Every industry today is governed by legal requirements for how long data must be in use and maintained, but once the time limit of maintaining data is reached, the data must be securely destroyed. There are different methods of destroying data, as explained in our Data Destruction Knowledge Series. But, as an organization, whether you follow any method of destruction, maintaining a CoD is critical to staying compliant with global data protection laws like EU-GDPR. CoE provides auditable proof of sanitization and promotes trust toward the third-party vendor performing media sanitization on behalf of your organization.
Peace of Mind
It is not only a document to meet compliance with data privacy laws and other industry regulations but also gives an organization and its stakeholders peace of mind that their data disposal strategy is sound and fail-safe. A certificate of destruction (CoD) ensures that no data breach incident or lapse has happened, as the document ensures complete, secure, and permanent data destruction.
NIST Mandates Data Destruction Certificate in its Guidelines
A Certificate of Data Destruction or Certificate of Sanitization, outlined in NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1, assists organizations or ITADs (IT Asset Disposition) companies in establishing a robust media sanitization program aligned with the NIST Guidelines for Media Sanitization. Appendix G (Page 56) of the NIST guidelines mandates organizations to keep a record of destruction and have it readily available on demand for any media destructed.
Sample Certificate of Sanitization As Per NIST AppendixG
As per NIST, a few things should exist on a Certificate of Sanitization (or Certificate of Data Destruction) in some form to verify their authenticity and integrity. Let us look at the key components of the certificate.
Key Components of a Certificate of Data Destruction
The following elements are critical for an auditable certificate:
- A unique digital identifier to record the destruction
- Model and serial numbers of the storage devices disposed of
- Details of data sanitization method used
- Details of the verification method used
- Name of the Software used for Media Sanitization
- Name of Technician performing data destruction or sanitization
- Signature of the official verifying the disposal process
- Start Date and Time of the data sanitization process
Ensure that the tool or device used to eradicate sensitive data provides a Certificate of Sanitization with accurate information. We recommend using BitRaser data erasure software that is tested and approved by NIST, Common Criteria, and other bodies globally & provides all details as required for the CoD.
BitRaser Drive Erasure Software Generates Tamper-Proof Certificate with the following key components:
- A Report ID and Digital Identifier along with software version and report date.
- Customer name and address.
- Data erasure summary including the total number of devices destroyed, method of erasure used (E.g., NIST 800-88 Purge or clear), number of passes (single or multiple), success and failure rate, work in progress (if any), verification method, etc. The certificate also mentions the start and end time of the process, along with the overall duration of the procedure.
- Hardware information like Manufacturer, Chassis Type, model name and UUID, System Serial, USB Hub, Chassis Serial, Board Serial, Media Source, and so on.
Certificate of Data Destruction Template
View Complete Certificate
Download Sample BitRaser Certificate of Erasure
Being a documented proof of erasure, a CoD ensures that an organization collecting, handling, or processing data acts responsibly by destroying data that is no longer required to ensure data privacy and protection as mandated by global regulatory norms. Hence, organizations must hire service providers or use tools like BitRaser that offer a Certificate of Destruction as proof to permanently destroy the data that is not required further. It is a resilient approach to ensure that devices are no longer exposed to bad actors, thereby mitigating liability risks.