Sanitization verification

Sanitization verification checks the outcome of an attempted data sanitization operation: whether the technique completed, and whether its result shows errors or anomalies. In the NIST terminology, this is distinct from sanitization validation, which decides whether the outcome adequately protects the target data.^[ref]

The evidence depends on the technique and medium. It may include a tool's completion status, device-health information or inspection of the remnants of a destructive process. A successful status message concerns the operation that was actually attempted; it does not establish that the chosen technique was appropriate.^[ref]

For an original accounting example,20 devices enter an assessment. Nineteen report successful completion and one reports an error. The completion fraction is $19/20=95\%$. That figure is not a95-percent probability that every device is sanitized, nor does it show that each of the19 successful outcomes meets the intended protection objective.

A useful record preserves both the attempted operation and its observed outcome. Without that link, an otherwise plausible completion report could refer to the wrong device or a different attempt. Verification supplies evidence for a decision; it is not a substitute for the decision itself.