Assured Sanitization of Stored Data

Cornerstone Research Group Inc. proposes to develop magnetic and optical data storage media whose data can be rendered forensically unrecoverable. This technology will enable data storage that can be discreetly sanitized by a system operator under duress. In a manner analogous to burning paper documents and pulverizing their ashes, the technology resulting from this program will use materials and processes whose physics of erasure preempt any possible reconstruction of the original data. These new technology concepts include substitute materials for CD/DVD and hard drives. Each concept offers a data sanitization mechanism that poses no danger to the operator, can be easily and discreetly actuated, and will render the data irrecoverable. Phase II development will yield significant advancement in the data protection vital for maintaining the current U.S. leadership in warfare technology. Data sanitization of magnetic and optical disk has potential to eliminate the loss of governmental, commercial and consumer critical data. The proposed solution would allow untrained people to completely destroy any remnants of data with minimal effort. This would allow for the disposal and recycling of storage components without the fear of stored data being left on the device and compromised by unknown individuals or countries.