What does disposal of media refer to in media sanitization?

Disposal of media in the context of media sanitization specifically refers to the process of discarding physical storage devices or digital media that contain data, with no consideration given to securely erasing or sanitizing that data prior to disposal. This means that the media is simply thrown away or otherwise discarded, leaving any residual data potentially accessible to unauthorized parties.

This practice poses a significant risk because disposed media may still contain sensitive or confidential information, which can be recovered if not properly sanitized. Therefore, it is imperative to properly sanitize media by using established methods to remove or obscure the data before considering it disposed of. This includes various sanitization techniques such as wiping, degaussing, or physically destroying the media to ensure that any data cannot be retrieved after disposal.