Magnetic data erasure followed by physical destruction.
Degaussing is the process of exposing magnetic storage media to a powerful, controlled magnetic field that disrupts and randomizes the magnetic domains on the storage surface. Those magnetic domains are where your data is physically encoded. When they are randomized by a sufficiently powerful degausser, the data they encoded cannot be reconstructed.
CDS uses NSA/CSS EPL-listed degaussing equipment — the same category of machines approved by the National Security Agency for sanitizing classified media. These are not consumer-grade demagnetizers. They generate field strengths measured in thousands of oersteds, sufficient to irreversibly erase data from the highest-coercivity drives in production today.
Degaussing is effective on:
Note: Degaussing does not affect solid-state media (SSDs, flash drives, optical discs) because those store data through electrical charge rather than magnetic domains. SSDs require physical shredding — which CDS also performs.
Degaussing alone leaves the physical media intact. Even after proper degaussing, the drive platters still exist as physical objects. While the data they held is gone, a future audit cannot independently verify that degaussing actually occurred or was performed correctly — there is no residual physical evidence of the erasure process.
Physical shredding solves both problems. It destroys the physical substrate, eliminating any theoretical question about whether data could persist through an improperly performed degauss. It also creates an observable, verifiable destruction event that can be recorded on surveillance video and documented in a certificate of destruction.
The combination — degauss first, then shred — is the highest-assurance disposal method available. It is explicitly recognized in NIST 800-88 guidance as a two-method approach that addresses both the data layer and the physical layer. For organizations in high-security environments, government contracting, or defense-related work, dual-method destruction documentation provides the strongest possible audit trail.