REAV

Glossary

Erasure certificate

The auditable record proving that all data on a specific device was destroyed, by a named method, at a known date.

An erasure certificate is the evidence that a device was sanitised. It ties a serial number to an erasure method, a software version, a result, a timestamp and an operator, so the claim can be reconstructed later by an auditor.

It matters because data-protection liability does not transfer with the hardware. When a company disposes of a laptop, it stays accountable for the personal data that was on it; the certificate is what converts an assurance into evidence.

Certificates are generated by the sanitisation software, Blancco and comparable tools, not written by hand, and the value lies in the chain around them: every device that entered must have one, and each must be retrievable by serial number instead of sitting in a folder of loose PDFs. Note that erasure is only one path; drives that fail sanitisation must be physically destroyed and documented as such.

Native Blancco integration: certificates filed against the device record

Related terms

  • Data sanitisation Rendering the data on a storage device unrecoverable, by one of three methods with different levels of assurance.
  • Chain of custody The unbroken, documented record of who held a device, when, and what was done to it, from collection to final disposition.
  • ITAD The controlled process of retiring IT equipment so that data is destroyed, value is recovered and disposal is documented.
  • R2v3 The SERI certification standard for electronics reuse and recycling facilities, covering data security, environment, health and safety.

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