NIST SP 800-88 covers which topic?

• A. Sanitization (MP)
• B. Data Recovery
• C. Network Security
• D. Access Control

Answer: (A)

Sanitizing storage media to prevent data recovery is what this standard is all about. NIST SP 800-88 provides guidelines for removing or rendering data unrecoverable on media before disposal, reuse, or release. It defines three levels of sanitization—clear, purge, and destroy—with techniques that fit each level: clearing uses data-removal methods like overwriting to make ordinary recovery difficult; purging involves more robust methods such as degaussing or cryptographic erasure under certain conditions; destroying means physically damaging or irreversibly destroying the media so data cannot be recovered. The guide also covers how to verify that sanitization has worked, which types of media require different approaches (magnetic, optical, solid-state), and considerations for newer environments like cloud services and virtualization. Other topics, like data recovery, network security, or access control, focus on different objectives such as retrieving lost data, protecting networks, or managing who can access resources, and are not about securely erasing data.