What is the primary technique used for sanitizing data in the cloud?

The primary technique for sanitizing data in the cloud is overwriting. This method involves replacing existing data with new data, thereby rendering the original data unreadable and unrecoverable. Overwriting is effective because it ensures that the sensitive information is fully erased from storage devices, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access.

In cloud environments, data often resides on shared infrastructure. Therefore, sanitization becomes crucial to protect sensitive information upon disposal or repurposing of cloud resources. By using overwriting, organizations can maintain compliance with data protection regulations and secure their data against potential breaches.

While other techniques like destruction, shredding, and degaussing also serve the purpose of data sanitization, they are less commonly used in cloud contexts. Destruction typically refers to the physical destruction of storage devices, which is impractical in a cloud setting. Shredding and degaussing are more relevant to physical media and may not be applicable for virtualized environments where logical data management methods like overwriting are favored.