Topic

Volatile media sanitisation

Applicable to

all

History

Priority

must

Dec 2021

Volatile media is sanitised by removing its power for at least 10 minutes.

Miscellaneous changes were made to rationale and security controls throughout the publication. This included:

• A review from the Using the Information Security Manual chapter through to the Guidelines for Media chapter.

• Security controls suitable for all audiences have been identified with the ‘All’ applicability marking while additional security controls suitable for just government audiences have been identified with the O, P, S and TS applicability markings.

• Security controls suitable for specific classifications have been amended to include their classification(s) in the wording of the security controls to reduce the reliance on applicability markings to confer suitability.

• Tables in security controls have been converted into prose to allow for inclusion in the SSP annex template and the XML list of security controls.

• The use of ‘official’ and ‘highly classified’ terminology has been replaced with specific classifications to remove ambiguity.

• Security controls relating to high assurance ICT equipment have had their applicability narrowed to ‘S, TS’ reflecting that they are intended for the protection of SECRET and TOP SECRET systems and data.

2015

Agencies must sanitise volatile media by either:• removing power from the media for at least 10 minutes• overwriting all locations of the media with a random pattern followed by a read backfor verification.

2010

Agencies must sanitise volatile media by either:• removing power from the media for at least 10 minutes• overwriting all locations of the media with an arbitrary pattern followed by a read back for verification.

2008

Agencies must sanitise volatile media by: a. removing power from the media for at least 10 minutes or b. overwriting all locations of the media with an arbitrary pattern followed by a read back for verification.