Shredding Methods

 The ProtectStar™ Data Shredder meets and exceeds government, military and industry standards for the permanent erasure of digital information. Users can choose the following different secure deletion methods:

50 Cycles: ProtectStar™ Secure Deletion Algorithm©
At first, all data will be overwritten for two times with a random value, afterwards with their complements, and finally again with the random value from the first pass. After this all data will be overwritten for three times using the Department of Defense (DoD) 5220.22-M (E) standard afterwards with the random values, and finally again with the DoD 5220.22-M (E) standard. At the end all data will be overwritten with the method from Peter Gutmann (Download / PDF) for 35-times by defined rules and another three defined rules from ProtectStar, Inc.

8 Cycles: German BSI / VS-ITR Standard (TL-03423)
In March 2010 the German Federal office for IT Security (BSI) published a new technical BSI Guideline for "Requirements to overwrite memory media TL-03423) (Download / PDF). The method is similar to VSITR standard for magnetic storage media. In total the new algorithm has 8 cycles, which has to be worked through in chronological order. Includes one cycle of verification.

7 Cycles: DoD 5220.22-M ECE
The method is based on the January 1995 'National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual' (Download / PDF) by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In this seven cycle variation (DoD 5220.22-M ECE), data is first overwritten three times with DoD 5220.22-M (E) Standards, then with a specific random value, and finally once again with DoD 5220.22-M (E).

4 Cycles: DoD 5220.22-M E for SSD
This method is specially developed for SSD (Solid State Drive) and flash memory, based on the U.S. Department of Defense's standard DoD 5220.22-M E. It will overwrite a file four times.

3 Cycles: HMG Infosec Standard Nr.5, enhanced
The HMG Infosec Standard No 5 - enhanced level is approved to wipe UK Government Top Secret data and has also been approved by NATO. The algorithm is a three pass overwriting algorithm: first pass - with zeros (0), second and third passes with its compliment and random values(with last pass verification).

3 Cycles: US Army AR380-19
AR380-19 is the data shredding algorithm specified and published by the U.S. Army. The algorithm is a three pass overwriting algorithm: first pass - with random bytes, second and third passes with certain bytes and with its compliment (with last pass verification).

3 Cycles: DoD 5220.22-M E
The method for low security but for high execution speed is based on the
January 1995 'National Industry Security Program Operating Manual' (Download / PDF) from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD 5220.22-M). The variation (DoD 5220.22-M E) offers 3 cycles in which the data are overwritten with first a set value, then its compliment, and then a random value.

1 Cycle: Overwriting with 0xFF for SSD
This method is specially developed for SSD (Solid State Drive) and flash memory. It offers one cycle which data are overwritten by the pattern "0xFF".

1 Cycle: Overwrite with random values
This method for the lowest security but for very high execution on speed, offers only one cycle which data are overwritten with random values.