ISM 6.2.92 is the Australian government's data sanitization standard.
The ISM 6.2.92 data sanitization method is usually implemented in the following way:
- Pass 1: Writes a random character and verifies the write
If a drive is under 15GB in size, the ISM 6.2.92 specifies that the drive being sanitized must be overwritten three times with a random character.
Erasing a hard drive using the ISM 6.2.92 data sanitization method will prevent all software based file recovery methods from lifting information from the drive and is also likely to prevent most hardware based recovery methods from extracting information.
The ISM 6.2.92 sanitization method was originally defined in the Information Security Manual (ISM) issued by the Australian Department of Defense: Intelligence & Security. The latest version of the ISM can be downloaded here.
Most data destruction programs support multiple data sanitization methods in addition to ISM 6.2.92.
