The most secure way to erase a hard drive is to use a degausser with a degaussing force that is at least twice the strength of the media.

There are no specific degaussing standards however several government security agencies, for example America’s NSA and the UK’s NCSC evaluate degausser performance against their own internal limits.

As part of their guidelines for the data sanitization of magnetic media, degaussing is recommended by the following organizations:

• National Institute of Standards & Technology
• Government Security Organizations such as the NSA & CESG.
• OGCIO HKSAR Government IT Security Policy and Guidelines

(All VS Security Products degaussers are designed to help you comply with these mandates and are regularly used by financial institutions, IT departments, E-recyclers and corporate organizations.)

Degaussing removes data by rearranging the magnetic field on electronic media to completely erase it.

You need to establish how many hard drives/backup tapes you need to erase per day/month. Then choose a degausser that has a suitable throughput and the security level you require.