Apparatus, a system, a method and a computer program for erasing data stored on a storage device

A data erasure apparatus for erasing data being stored in a data storage apparatus, the data erasure apparatus comprising:

• a data provision portion configured to obtain a sequence of uncompressible data fulfilling predetermined criteria, said predetermined criteria comprised of a P-value derived on basis of the sequence of uncompressible data using a predetermined statistical test indicative of compressibility of the data exceeding a predetermined threshold,
• wherein a null-hypothesis is that the sequence of uncompressible data is non-random, and
• wherein the sequence of uncompressible data is divided into one or more blocks of uncompressible data, the sum of sizes of the one or more blocks of uncompressible data being larger than or equal to an addressable storage capacity of the data storage apparatus;
• and
• a data writing portion configured to
• provide, to the data storage apparatus, the one or more blocks of uncompressible data for storage therein to overwrite the data being currently stored in the data storage apparatus,
• issue to the data storage apparatus, following a provision of said one or more blocks of uncompressible data, a firmware level sanitization command that is arranged to cause initialization of all user addressable memory locations of the data storage apparatus, and
• compare, after issuance of the firmware level sanitization command, one or more selected portions of data stored in the data storage apparatus with respective portions of the one or more blocks of uncompressible data most recently provided for storage in the data storage apparatus to verify that the respective portions of the one or more blocks of uncompressible data most recently provided for storage in the storage apparatus are not anymore stored therein, thereby providing an indication of successful application of the firmware level sanitization command.