20+ Sanitization Standards Decoded: Why Most Companies Are Using the Wrong One

Introduction

Here's a nightmare scenario: you've just sanitized 200 drives. Every single one passed verification. Data's gone. But your auditor still flags you as non-compliant. Why? Because you used DoD 5220.22-M on healthcare data—and that's not what HIPAA wants to see.

One-size-fits-all sanitization?

That's a compliance liability waiting to happen. Different industries, different regulations, different standards. And if your software can't speak the language your auditor expects, you're stuck. DoD 5220.22-M was deprecated in 2014. The government moved to NIST SP 800-88. But many sanitization tools still default to DoD because that's all they support.

Healthcare needs NIST for HIPAA. Finance has PCI-DSS and GLBA requirements. International work means UK, German, or Canadian standards. Most competitor solutions lock you into three to five standards, max. And here's the trap: even if the data is erased, the wrong certificate fails your audit. Now you're re-sanitizing drives you already processed, doubling costs and explaining why you got it wrong.

Conclusion

LSoft supports twenty-plus international standards. DoD and NIST for U.S. work. HMG for UK. BSI for Germany. CSEC for Canada. Navy, Army, and NSA standards for specialized contracts. One-pass to thirty-five-pass variants. Plus custom standard creation if you need it.

Every sanitization generates an automatic certificate with the exact standard used. Your auditor sees what they expect. No manual records, no guesswork.

And as standards evolve, LSoft adapts. No forced upgrades, no subscription fees to unlock new standards. Your clients don't all speak the same compliance language. Your software shouldn't force them to. Download our complete standards matrix to see which methods LSoft supports for your industry. Or schedule a technical demo and watch us switch between standards in real-time. LSoft Technologies. Every standard. One platform.