The ability to securely remove or wipe data from hard drives is essential for maintaining the security of your data. But how do wiping and deleting differ from one another? It is frequently believed that erasing data is sufficient. However, the reality is that data deletion can still leave it open to theft.
In the contemporary digital era, data breaches and leaks are frequent occurrences. However, managing the data that is held on storage devices is still a mystery to many people. What do they do with the information if they don’t want it? Do they delete or erase the data?
Data deletion and wiping could sound like similar concepts. Both procedures, meanwhile, are distinct and have various outcomes. Let’s talk about the distinction between data wiping and data deletion.
What does data deletion mean?
The real file is not removed when you delete it. The indicator indicating the location of the file is the only thing that is really removed. Data is stored on a rotating platter that is separated into sectors on an HDD. The FAT, MFT, or NTFS protocols are used to access data that has been magnetically written to these sectors. Because of these indexes, data can still be recovered even after the “delete” button has been clicked.
HDDs need to be securely erased in order to make data unrecoverable. Overwriting is the technique used the most frequently. The old data is written on top of the new data in layers, and then the entries in the index table are deleted. Data can be overwritten in a variety of ways. One or more times can be written over existing data, for instance, as a series of zeroes or ones.
What does data wiping mean?
The process of entirely removing the data from the storage device is known as data wiping, also known as data erasure. Data wiping, as opposed to data deletion, makes sure that no remnants of the data are left on the storage device.
Data wiping entirely erases the data that was previously stored in a sector of the hard drive by overwriting it with random, useless data. The business must comply with a number of data erasure standards, including DoD 5220.22-M, NIST 800-88 Clear, NIST 800-88 Purge, and others, depending on the compliance requirements. If your storage device is compromised in this case, it will be difficult to retrieve the data.
How Do You Delete Data?
Nowadays, no computer user is unaware of how to delete a file or folder. All you have to do is right-click the file and choose “Delete” or press the Delete (DEL) button after choosing it. Depending on whether you are using Windows or macOS, the file gets moved to either the Recycle Bin or Trash. Press Shift + DEL to delete the file directly instead of going through the Recycle Bin.
How Do You Wipe Data?
Finding the file’s location and removing it permanently are both steps in the wiping process. Tools for secure data erasing include BitRaser Drive Eraser, which is an efficient data erasure solution. Additionally, you have the option of selecting the wiping standard that best suits your company’s needs. Any drive, file, or folder can be securely erased while preserving all other data.
What Kind of Data Must Be Either Deleted or Wiped?
In a perfect world, you would wish to delete all unneeded files. However, you would need to purchase third-party data wiping software in order to wipe your data. Therefore, any non-confidential or unimportant file can be destroyed using the traditional way, including duplicate photos, old receipts, and junk folders.
Businesses that need to comply with numerous regulatory regulations and safeguard sensitive customer information frequently use data wiping. By wiping the hard drive clean, it assists IT personnel in reassigning resources to workers. To achieve total data protection, enterprises must also delete the data before discarding the storage devices. Anything from invoices, bills, sales data, and marketing plans could be stored on the storage device.
But people can also wipe the data from their external hard drives, laptops, and other devices when they decide to sell them. Data wiping is not just for corporations.
Risks of Data Deletion
As was previously recognised, data deletion has nothing to do with removing data from the perspective of preserving users’ data privacy. Instead, it is the act of making room for new storage. Therefore, not knowing this fact can increase the likelihood of data leaks and misuse.
If this data is made available to an unauthorised third party, serious consequences like identity theft, financial fraud, threats to one’s personal safety, harm to one’s brand, IP theft, customer loss, and even legal action may result. Data deletion incidents for organisations can result in breaking of rules and regulations, which can result in severe fines.
Conclusion
Before being discarded or given to another user, the data needs to be deleted from the storage device. However, erasing the data is not the appropriate course of action. The user cannot access files that have been deleted from the system. The data are still present in the device, though.
Data wiping is a technique for entirely erasing the data from the storage device. To completely delete data from any storage device and prevent its retrieval, utilise BitRaser Drive Eraser.