DoD Compliant Best Data Wiping Software?

Summary: The best DoD-compliant data wiping software is BitRaser, it complies with not only DoD but also 23 other global data erasure standards. This software also works on mobile phones (iPhone and Android).  If a device has storage media, BitRaser will probably be able to clean its data, forever.
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In today’s world of advances in technology, it is no longer a “point and clicks” process when the question of data eraser arises.

Even physical trauma to storage media can be restored with commercially available software solutions.

This makes it difficult for companies to get rid of the data that they want to go forever. In many cases, enterprises these days are required by law to perform permanent data deletion.

But how can they be sure that their data is true, deleted, in the final sense of the word? For this, they need to use specialized data wiping tools, which come to us in the form of a godsend: DoD-compliant data wiping software.

The End Result: This specialized software will not only delete, but actually rewrite and reallocate your data space so that the information is completely irrecoverable, or at the very least, totally illegible.

This raises the question, which is the best DoD data wiping software? That is what we will answer in this article.

Table of Contents

1. What Is DoD Data Wiping Software?
2. What are these “standards” exactly?
3. Which Is The Best DOD Compliant Data Wiping Software?
4. BitRaser Versus The Competition
5. Frequently Asked Questions

What Is DoD Data Wiping Software?

First things first, we need to answer what specific key terms mean. These are the terms you need to know for this article to make sense.

DOD stands for the Department of Defence (Of The United States of America), and when we speak about “DOD data eraser standards” we are (more often than not) referring to the DOD 5220.22 M data wiping standard, though the DOD has released several data eraser standards that have varying levels of security for the IT industry.

In simple terms, DOD-compliant data wiping software is any data erasure software that makes use of the protocols defined by these standards set by the Department of Defence.

By standards, we mean the protocols that are now taken as the industry standard for data eraser software across the globe, most notably the DOD 5220.22 M standard.

What are these “standards” exactly?

Well, when the governments went digital with their information and storage, they came upon situations where, from time to time, they needed data erased by the organizations that they worked with.

The government, not wanting to take any chances, would give these organizations a set of steps to erase sensitive data that would ensure that no recovery of the data would be possible after deletion.

Different organizations would get different steps, based on the sensitivity of the data.

A few years down the line, these “steps” have become standard for permanent data deletion, and the ones that are used the most frequently are the DOD 5220.22 M data eraser standards.

The main competitors for the DOD 5220.22 M standard are the NIST 800-88 Clear, Purge, and destroy data eraser standards, but the DOD vs. NIST debate is to be reserved for another article.

Which Is The Best DOD Compliant Data Wiping Software?

Like we said above, the best DOD data wiping software is BitRaser offered to you by Stellar Data Recovery

BitRaser supports erasure on multiple drive types, including SATA, PATA, SSD, NVMe, M.2, PCI, SAS, SCSI, IDE, USB, Fibre Channel & FireWire.

BitRaser is compliant with not one, not ten, not fifteen, but twenty-nine different data eraser standards across the globe, including 24 industry standards (like the DoD 5220.22 M, the British HMG, the NIST 800-88 purge, The German VSITR, the US Air Force AFSSI 5020, and many more).

These are in addition to five custom-developed data eraser standards. BitRaser also offers an admin console and allows the user to customize their ISO file to pre-configured system settings.

BitRaser Versus The Competition

Here, we have ranked BitRaser against the most popular DoD supported software for data erasure that are currently on the market – we did the research so that you don’t have to.

Point Of Distinction	BitRaser	DBAN	CBL Shredder	KillDisk
Free Trial	Yes*	Yes, Free for minimal personal use	Yes, Personal use only, no enterprise option available.	Yes,; paid version only deletes 15 disks.
Operating System	Windows, macOS	Windows	Windows	Windows, Mac, Linux
Eraser Standard	24, DOD 5220.22 M, NIST 800-88 purge etc	6	Uses Peter Gutmann and DOD 5220.22 M.	Supports the US DOD 5220.22 M and NIST 800-88 purge.
ISO image customization	Yes	No	Yes	No

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What makes a data wiping tool DOD compliant?

A data wiping tool is considered a DoD supported software if and only if it adheres to the frameworks set by US Department of Defence for FCI (federal Contract Information) and CUI (Controlling Unclassified Information).

The DOD 5220.22 M frameworks can be found on the Pentagon’s website here.

2. What else does a DOD data wiping tool need, beyond DoD compliance?

Any decent DoD supported software that is worth its salt will never limit itself to compliance with just a few framework and protocol compliances; it should have adherence to as many data eraser standards as possible.

If it has adherence to frameworks across governments, even better.

3. What's the latest with DoD compliance? 

Traditionally, to be DoD compliant, the data storage media had to undergo 3 or 7 data passes and overwrites to achieve 5220.22 M certifications.

With other standards coming in, however, the focus is shifting away from the DOD 5220.22 M to others, such as the NIST 800-88 purge standards.

Even other standards are being slowly shunned, such as the British 1-pass HMG algorithm.

That said, for most organizations and businesses, the DoD 5220.22-M has more than enough juice to ensure secure data erasure, and the 7 pass DoD 5220.22-M has even more erasure security for your peace of mind.

For the foreseeable future, the DOD standards will continue to remain valid and in use with many data eraser tools, including BitRaser.

Closing Notes

As far as DoD-compliant data wiping software is concerned, the winner is clear: it is BitRaser certified.

The best part is that BitRaser is not limited to just one or two data eraser standards, it is certified to erase data to the data eraser standards of many different countries.

Further information about BitRaser is available by navigating to this PDF.