Applies to: All editions
Current NIST context
NIST SP 800-88 Revision 2, published in September 2025, supersedes Revision 1. It treats media sanitization as a risk-based program involving the information’s protection requirements, media type, selected sanitization method, verification, validation, documentation, and disposition.
CertErase provides logical file and free-space overwrite capabilities. A user can configure profiles labelled with NIST, IEEE, and historical organizational method names. Those labels describe application overwrite recipes; they do not establish that every requirement, decision, and control in the referenced publication has been satisfied.
Clear, purge, and destroy
Current sanitization programs distinguish outcome categories and techniques. A file-level host overwrite is not automatically equivalent to device-level purge or physical destruction. The appropriate category depends on the media, data sensitivity, reuse or disposal plan, available commands, and validation requirements.