Which type of data sanitization provides effective protection from all recovery techniques?

The concept of data sanitization involves ensuring that sensitive information is irretrievably removed from a storage medium. When considering options for effective data sanitization, it is important to choose a method that guarantees data cannot be recovered using any technique.

Purge stands out as an effective method of data sanitization because it is specifically designed to render data irrecoverable, even through advanced recovery techniques. Purging typically involves the use of established methods that completely overwrite data or physically destroy the storage medium, making it impossible for anyone to recover the original information. This level of sanitization is crucial in protecting sensitive data, particularly in environments where compliance with regulations or protection against data breaches is paramount.

Other options, while they might have some level of effectiveness in certain scenarios, do not universally guarantee that data cannot be recovered. For example, simply setting up a new file system does not erase the data; it merely creates a new structure while the original data may persist on the underlying storage. Rewriting file data for contiguous clusters may help in reducing the chances of recovery, but it typically does not ensure complete destruction of the original data, as remnants could potentially still be recoverable. Sanitizing the decryption key might prevent access to encrypted data but does not directly erase the data