What is Remanence?

Understanding Remanence

Residual magnetism left behind. Data remanence refers to the residual data that remains on storage media after attempts to remove or erase it. This residual data can potentially be recovered using specialized techniques creating security risks when media is repurposed or disposed of. Understanding remanence is critical for effective data sanitization. Data remanence concerns are addressed in standards like NIST SP 800-88 and various regulatory frameworks requiring secure data disposal. Organizations address remanence through proper media sanitization techniques appropriate to the media type and data sensitivity including clearing purging or destruction methods. For example before disposing of old hard drives containing customer information a financial institution might implement a multi-step sanitization process that includes secure overwriting with verification degaussing to address magnetic remanence and physical destruction to eliminate recovery possibilities with chain-of-custody documentation throughout the process. Related terms Data sanitization Media sanitization Secure erase Degaussing Magnetic media Residual data Secure disposal Data recovery.