Blancco Supports NIST Guidelines for Firmware-Based Erasure of HDDs

Blancco Ltd. announced support for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines for firmware-based erasure of ATA and SCSI drives. With its new and enhanced client erasure software, Blancco takes the NIST recommended guidelines a step further by uniting them with a software overwriting option that verifies complete erasure – a level of support not found in other data erasure products.

"Blancco‚s software combines the ease of firmware-based data erasure with the security and reporting capabilities of software overwriting to maximize information security in all situations," says Markku Willgren, North American vice president for business and sales development, Blancco. "Our client software provides the accuracy and authenticity of a system-generated report that indicates whether the firmware commands were recognized and provides detailed information on erasure status."

Execution of the Secure Erase command for ATA drives and Format Unit command for SCSI drives depends on the individual drive manufacturer’s implementation of NIST Standards and may fail in certain hardware configurations. Blancco software adds an overwriting pass after issuance of the firmware command that clears remapped sectors, offers a system-generated report and avoids human error encountered with manual firmware command execution alone.

"Blancco’s software answers the growing demand from our clients for a data destruction option that supports the NIST Secure Erase command," says Jeff Neyland, CIO of Intechra, a provider of IT asset disposition services for over 20 years. "Blancco helps us in our mission to make enterprise-grade asset disposition reliable, worry-free, and efficient."

In addition to supporting NIST Standards, Blancco’s client software features enhanced support of SAS/SATA drives and network cards for over-the-network data erasure and reporting. Other enhancements include serial console operation for data center equipment with limited connectivity, such as blade servers.

Through its support of NIST guidelines, Blancco continues its commitment to delivering advanced data erasure for the widest range of hardware in the industry. Blancco’s data erasure solutions adhere to all major government and military erasure standards, while their ability to erase all data ‘even on hidden and remapped sectors’ meets HIPAA, SOX, GLBA and other regulatory requirements. As the industry leader, Blancco’s expertise ensures smooth integration of automated data erasure, hardware asset management and report collection for any organization.