How can I securely destroy some data using sql ser

Question

One of my clients wants me to perform a periodic "real" destruction of some of his old data, and I'm evaluating the best way to do it.

The data is in a table, and I want to destroy some of the rows contained in it.

I could do it manually by deleting/exporting the database on another computer/degaussing the hard drive/reimporting the saved data, but I need an automatic solution.

Is there an equivalent to the delete (as in delete * from foo) command which would perform a secure destruction of the data (using DoD secure wipe, or something like that?)

Do you see other ways to perform this automatic deletion?

Btw, I know the odds of someone retrieving some of the data I've destroyed using the sql delete command are very small, but some of my clients require it. So please don't turn this question into a global debate on the topic of data disposal procedures !

Edit : the problem I want to address is not "How should I destroy the data so it cannot be recovered" but rather "How can I convince my clients that their data cannot be recovered".

Answer 1

I am not sure if this meets the requirments of the DOD, but at a minimum I would be going through the following.

1. Delete the records the standard way
2. Take a new backup of the database (for future use)
3. Delete all existing backups (As they have the data), using a standard file deletion process that meets the standards
4. Shrink the database to free-up the unused space from the deleted records.

I think this will get you pretty close, the key though is the management of the shrink operation, which I am not 100% sure how that clears/handles data. Secondly, removing the old backups would be the "biggest risk" if you were looking at risk points in my opinion.