Does a DoD approved disk wiping utility erase information by applying a strong magnetic field to the disk surface?

A Department of Defense (DoD) approved disk wiping utility does not rely on applying a strong magnetic field to erase information from a disk surface. Instead, these utilities typically function by overwriting the existing data on the disk with a specific pattern of data multiple times, which makes the original data irretrievable. This method is in line with the DoD standards for data sanitization, which emphasize techniques that ensure data cannot be recovered by standard data recovery methods.

Using a strong magnetic field is a method associated with degaussing, which is effective for certain types of storage media, such as magnetic tapes and hard drives. However, modern solid-state drives (SSDs) and some other storage technologies do not respond effectively to magnetic fields in the same way. The wiping utilities, which are software-based, focus on systematic overwriting rather than relying on physical destruction techniques like degaussing, thereby ensuring a broader applicability across different types of data storage.