17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
There is a commonly-held belief that there is a US government standard for declassifying magnetic media which involves overwriting it three times. In fact this method is for declassifying core (computer memory) rather than magnetic media. The government standard for declassifying magnetic media probably involves concentrated acid, furnaces, belt sanders, or any combination of the above.
For magentic media, which includes core :), I believe the standard is overwriting the info alternately with 0's and 1's 100x. Paul