What Are NIST Data Protection Standards?

Published: January 21, 2021

For corporations and companies, NIST data security is of the utmost importance. This is where NIST data center security standards come into play. The NIST, or the National Institute of Standards and Technology, provides the framework for guidelines businesses must uphold in regards to safeguarding client privacy.

The Basics of NIST Data Security

NIST data protection standards are essentially best practices that are based on the guidelines that the federal government develops. Businesses must adhere to NIST data security center standards to maintain compliance and the highest level of security for upholding privacy and sensitive information to avoid breaches in security.

There are different sets of NIST data protection standards, such as HIPAA policies for doctors and hospitals and FISMA compliance guidelines for federal agencies. Agencies must follow these guidelines to remain compliant. With secure data, there can be penalties for businesses that do not adhere to the specific NIST data protection standards. Doing so gives clients and companies peace of mind that their sensitive information is handled in the most correct and lawful manner. 

What is the NIST Data Encryption Standard?

You may be familiar with the term encryption. Encryption is a way that businesses can protect information by using certain codes that hackers can’t break through. The NIST data encryption standards are the guidelines set forth by the NIST to safely and lawfully encrypt sensitive data so as to protect it.

This method is used by the federal government as well as by other companies and businesses to ensure the highest level of data security and privacy. These methods are used via hardware and software to secure classified information. For government cybersecurity, these NIST data protection standards use a specific algorithm to protect the most sensitive information. 

These NIST data encryption standards are used worldwide to protect not only government documents but also other classified information and data. This block cypher method of encryption was first developed in the 1970s by IBM. It continues to be used today in various forms. 

NIST Data Destruction

So, what happens when you need to destroy information protected by stringent NIST data encryption standards? That is where guidelines called the “NIST data erasure standards” come in. This set of guidelines essentially states that information must be destroyed (sanitized) in a way that it is no longer retrievable by any means and compliant with NIST data security. 

This means that you must adhere to NIST data destruction guidelines when you no longer require this information. It’s best to do the following:

• Hire a data erasure service to do the job for you. This type of business often operates using the NIST data protection standards, and they know how to remove and eliminate data in the most compliant way. 
• Make sure you obtain a certificate of data removal once the job is complete. A reputable and professional NIST data destruction service will even present you with a certificate stating that data has been erased via NIST data protection standards and can no longer be retrieved. This is how you can be certain compliance is a factor in data erasure.
• Double-check that the data erasure service is lawfully destroying, recycling, or reselling old technology in an environmental way. 

Contact PlanITROI to discuss NIST and data protection standards for your firm today.