Tech

Blancco 5: Secure, reliable and verifiable SSD erasure

As solid-state drives (SSDs) replace hard disk drives (HDDs), enterprise users now require a secure, reliable and verifiable way to wipe data from a myriad of SSD vendors.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor March 15, 2016 at 9:11 a.m. PT

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Are you an IT admin that has SSDs in need of erasure piling up around you? You're not alone, and as HDDs are slowly being replaced with SSDs, the headaches associated with erasure are just going to get worse.

Having the right tool to do the job helps tremendously.

See also: Video: How to destroy hard drives

Blancco Technology Group, makers of the Blancco 5 software erasure tool, have today been awarded a patent by the US Patent Office (patent number 9286231) for the unique, secure and verifiable method by which the product erases data from SSDs, whether they are end-of-life, or being moved to a different machine.

What makes Blancco 5 different to most other tools is that it has been specifically designed to erase SSDs from numerous different vendors. The patented process consists of:

A multi-phase, proprietary SSD erasure approach that utilizes all available security protocols supported by SSDs
Automated techniques to remove system BIOS freeze locks, enabling access to key internal security features of an SSD
Procedures that root out those drives that give false positives about their internal erasure processes
Third-party benchmark testing and validation
A comprehensive tamper-proof report to confirm erasure results and serve as an essential part of compliance and auditing requirements

"With benefits such as durability, speed, reliability, energy efficiency and better overall performance, it's no wonder so many organizations favor SSDs over hard disk drives as their preferred data storage device," says Pat Clawson, CEO of Blancco Technology Group. "At the same time, budgetary and resource constraints have driven IT administrators to reuse SSDs whenever possible."

"Unfortunately, knowledge of the proper SSD erasure methods and tools has not been anywhere near as fast or as ubiquitous as the SSD adoption rate," continued Clawson. "And when free tools/software are used (as they so often are), it makes matters even worse because such tools cannot adequately do the job and leave large amounts of data accessible."

While tools such as DBAN - which is also owned by the Blancco Technology Group - are great for consumers, they don't support SSDs and can't offer audit-ready reporting for regulatory compliance.

In addition to providing tamper-proof erasure audit trail, Blancco 5 also supports over a dozen different erasure standards, making it perfect whether you need a quick wipe, or an ultra-paranoid totally secure wipe.

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