Removable flash is where organisations quietly lose data. A USB stick from a conference, a microSD card out of a camera, the memory card in a machine nobody has audited — they hold real files, they cost nothing to lose, and they rarely appear on an asset register.
They are also flash, which means the same problem as an SSD: a controller that hides part of the medium from anything trying to overwrite it. Most cheap devices do not implement a sanitize command at all.
We handle them the honest way. Where the device supports a proper erase, we issue it and verify. Where it does not, we say so and destroy it, and the certificate records which of the two happened.
The Risks This Removes
The Drawer Nobody Audits
Conference giveaways, camera cards, the stick a contractor left behind. None of it is on an asset register, so none of it is ever formally retired — and every one of them holds whatever was last copied to it.
A Quick Format Clears the Index
It rewrites the file table and reports the device as empty. The data is still in the cells, and free recovery tools find it in minutes. This is the single most common reason flash media leaks.
Cheap Controllers Cannot Be Commanded
A good USB stick implements a real erase instruction. Many do not, and there is no way to reach the reserve area on those. A vendor who says every stick was securely erased has not checked.
Identify, Erase, Verify, Report, Then Decide
The same five steps as every other medium. On flash, step two is where the honesty is.
- 01
Identify
Capacity, controller and serial where the device exposes one. Many small devices do not, which is recorded rather than glossed over.
- 02
Erase
The device's own erase command where it implements one; a full overwrite where it does not.
- 03
Verify
The medium is read back and compared. A device that still returns data has failed, whatever it reported.
- 04
Report
A certificate per device, naming what was issued and whether it verified.
- 05
Reuse or Destroy
Verified devices can be reissued. Anything that would not clear is shredded, and the certificate says so.
Catalogued Before Anything Happens
Every device is logged with its type, capacity and any serial it carries before processing begins. Small media go missing precisely because nobody wrote down that they existed, and a certificate for a device with no identifier is not worth much.
Erase Where Possible, Destroy Where Not
Consumer flash frequently lacks any command that clears the reserve. Rather than run an overwrite and pretend, we test what the device supports, erase and verify where the answer is yes, and shred where it is no.
The Process, Step by Step
Collect the Drawer
Everything, not just the labelled ones. The unlabelled devices are the ones nobody can vouch for, which makes them the ones that matter.
Count and Log
Each device is logged with its capacity and any serial it exposes, so the number that arrives and the number of certificates match.
Ask What It Supports
The device is queried for a real erase command. What it answers decides whether it can be cleared or has to be destroyed.
Erase or Overwrite
The sanitize command where there is one, a full overwrite of every addressable block where there is not.
Read It Back
Verification is a separate read. On small cheap media this is where a surprising number of devices fail.
Certify, Then Reissue or Shred
A document per device either way, so a stick that was destroyed is as evidenced as one that was cleared.
Flash Media We Process
If it holds data and fits in a pocket, it belongs in this list. The cards a photographer carries are the same problem as the sticks in a drawer.
Camera and card media
- SD, SDHC and SDXC cards
- microSD with and without an adapter
- CompactFlash (CF) and CFast
- CFexpress Type A and Type B
- XQD cards
- Memory Stick and older proprietary formats
Removable drives
- USB-A and USB-C flash drives
- Promotional and giveaway sticks
- Encrypted and PIN-protected drives
- Portable SSDs in a USB enclosure
- Card readers with internal storage
Embedded flash
- eMMC storage soldered to a board
- Industrial and single-board computer modules
- Handheld scanner and terminal storage
- Drone and action-camera media
- Devices whose storage cannot be removed
Which Method Applies
| Situation | What We Do |
|---|---|
| Device implements a real erase command | Issue it, read the medium back, certify the result |
| Device implements no erase command | Overwrite every addressable block, verify, and say in the certificate that the reserve could not be reached |
| Encrypted or PIN-protected drive | Revoke the key where the device supports it, then overwrite or destroy to your policy |
| Device is not recognised at all | Destroyed. An erase that cannot be issued cannot be certified |
| Card fails verification after the erase | Shredded, and the certificate records the destruction rather than a wipe |
| Storage is soldered into a device | The board is destroyed with the storage on it |
What the Work Gives You
Every Device Counted
A crate of eighty sticks produces eighty records. The number handed over and the number of certificates are reconciled before anything is returned.
Honest About the Reserve
Where a controller hides part of the medium and offers no way to clear it, the certificate says so. That is a materially different claim from a verified sanitize, and the document should not blur them.
Verification on Small Media Too
A 4 GB card gets the same read-back as a 4 TB drive. Small does not mean unimportant — it means easy to lose.
Destruction to Flash Size
Where a device is shredded, the fragments are fine enough that an individual memory chip cannot survive. Hard-drive shred sizes are not.
Bulk Intake
Built for the drawer clear-out: hundreds of small devices, logged, processed and reconciled as one batch.
On-Site if You Prefer
The whole process runs on your premises, so nothing containing data leaves the building at any point.
What You Hold at the End
One document per device, plus the batch reconciliation. On flash the important line is what the device actually supported, because that is the difference between a sanitize and a best-effort overwrite.
- Device type, capacity and serial number where one is exposed
- The erase operation issued, or a statement that none was available
- The verification read and its result
- Where the device was destroyed instead, that it was and why
- Start and finish time, and the operator who ran it
- A batch list reconciling every device received against every certificate issued
- A digital signature, so an edited certificate no longer validates
- 6 formatsUSB, SD, microSD, CF, CFexpress, XQD
Handled as media in their own right rather than as small drives, because the wear levelling and the controller behave differently.
- 25 methodsErasure Standards Built In
NIST SP 800-88 Clear and Purge, IEEE 2883, DoD 5220.22-M, BSI, DPDP and twenty more. The software issues what the medium actually supports.
- 100%Verified, or Listed for Destruction
A card that will not read back clean is never certified. It is flagged for physical destruction and shown as an exception on the report.
- 1 per deviceCertificate, Even for a 4 GB Stick
Small media are where records get skipped, which is exactly why they are the media that turn up in a breach.
The Standards Behind a Flash Erase
These are the published procedures the work follows. They are not certifications held by this company.
NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2
Handles flash separately from magnetic media and is explicit that overwriting alone may not reach every cell on it. For Purge it points at the device's own sanitize operation.
When it appliesThe default reference for removable flash, and the one to name in a disposal policy.
IEEE 2883-2022
Defines Clear, Purge and Destruct with solid state storage in mind, and requires the outcome to be verified rather than assumed from a return code.
When it appliesWhere a policy has been written recently, or where a customer asks for the current standard.
ATA and NVMe Sanitize
The manufacturer's own erase instructions. Better removable media implements them; a great deal of cheap media does not, which is precisely why the method has to be chosen per device.
When it appliesEvery device that supports one. What is available is established at the time of the erase, not assumed.
DPDP Act, 2023 (India)
Requires personal data to be erased once its purpose has ended, and expects you to be able to show it was. A memory card holding customer photographs is personal data.
When it appliesAny organisation processing personal data of people in India.
GDPR, Article 17
The right to erasure, and the obligation to demonstrate it. For removable media that means a record naming the device, not a policy saying such devices are wiped.
When it appliesAny organisation holding personal data of people in the EU or UK.
ISO/IEC 27001, Annex A
Its controls on removable media and secure disposal expect a documented, repeatable process — and removable media is the control most often failed, because the devices are not on any register.
When it appliesOrganisations certified to ISO 27001 or being audited against it.
Where People Go from Here
Solid State Drive Sanitization
The same flash physics at a larger scale, where the drive does implement a proper sanitize command.
Read moreCertificate of Destruction
What a per-device certificate records, and why a batch letter cannot answer a question about one card.
Read moreData Erasure Standards
Every method the software runs, with its pass count and the standard it implements.
Read moreFrequently Asked Questions
Can a USB stick be securely wiped at all?
Sometimes. Better-quality devices implement a sanitize command and can be verifiably erased. Many cheap ones cannot, and for those the only defensible answer is destruction. We test rather than assume.
What about SD cards from cameras and dashcams?
Same treatment. They are handled as flash media, tested for a real erase capability, and destroyed if they do not have one.
Is there a minimum quantity?
No. We process single devices as readily as a crate of them, and the certificate is per device either way.
Do you handle encrypted USB drives?
Yes. Hardware-encrypted drives can usually be cleared by destroying the key, which is fast and verifiable. Software-encrypted volumes are treated as ordinary media.
Clear Out the Drawer
Most offices have a box of forgotten flash media. Send it to us and find out what was on it — or rather, make sure nobody else does.