Blancco Ltd. is an international data security company that specializes in data erasure and computer reuse management solutions for corporations, governments and computer remarketing companies worldwide.
Founded and headquartered in Joensuu, Finland, the company now operates worldwide with offices across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

History and product evolution

Janne Tervo and Kim Väisänen launched Blancco Ltd. in 1997 as Carelian Innovation Ltd. Carelian’s major focus was security, particularly with regard to keeping personal data safe from theft and hacking. Two key product lines emerged: Protekto, an antitheft device for personal computers; and Blancco, a product for the secure wiping of hard disk drives.

In September 1997, a central hospital in Finland sold computers containing the medical records of over 3,000 patients. It was one of the largest data security incidents in Finland’s history and reinvigorated development of Carelian’s first data erasure

Data erasure

Data erasure is a software-based method of overwriting data that completely destroys all electronic data residing on a hard disk drive or other digital media. Permanent data erasure goes beyond basic file deletion commands, which only remove direct pointers to data disk sectors and make data...

 tool, Blancco Data Cleaner. The first version of the product was launched in July 1999. This product's success prompted Carelian to sell other product lines and change its name to Blancco to focus solely on data erasure

Data erasure

Data erasure is a software-based method of overwriting data that completely destroys all electronic data residing on a hard disk drive or other digital media. Permanent data erasure goes beyond basic file deletion commands, which only remove direct pointers to data disk sectors and make data...

 tools. W

After a July 2000 investment by venture capital firm Helment Business Mentors, Blancco was able expand its operations globally – and its product line to include solutions for computer lifecycle management. Blancco LAN Server was launched in November 2001 and expanded the company’s clientele to include recycling and refurbishing centers, auction houses, leasing companies and large-scale corporations.

By August 2005, the company's global user base exceeded 3 million. The company expanded its product line in 2008 with the introduction of the Blancco 4.5 client series for added server support, and the Data Center Edition, which enables safe reuse of the hard drives in mass storage environments for clients such as Sun

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, HP and EMC

EMC Corporation

EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...

 that need deep data expunging.
Today, the company continues to focus on data security and reaches a wide range of industries, including banking, finance, government and defense. Over 250 refurbishment centers worldwide have standardized on Blancco’s technology platform.

Management team

Kim Vaisanen, Managing Director and Co-Founder

Sari Tianen, Finance Manager

Dr. Michael Röchner, Chairperson for Board of Directors

Kim Vaisanen, Board of Directors

Ari Hakkarainen, Board of Directors

Janne Vara, Chief Operating Officer

Europe

Joensuu, Finland (Head Office)

Helsinki, Finland

London, United Kingdom

Roubaix, France

Berlin, Germany

Ludwigsburg, Germany

Stockholm, Sweden

Milan, Italy

Products

Blancco’s data wipe products scale from a single, reusable PC erasure tool to software for erasure requirements in mass storage environments and data centers. The various versions support erasure of different hardware configurations.

Supported hardware erasure

	PC Edition	Server Edition	Data Center Edition
Number of hard drives supported	4	16	200+
Overwrite IDE, SATA Serial ATA Serial ATA is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives... , SCSI	Yes	Yes	Yes
Overwrite SAS Serial Attached SCSI Serial Attached SCSI is a computer bus used to move data to and from computer storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces the parallel SCSI bus technology that first appeared in the mid 1980s in data centers and workstations,...  hard disks		Yes	Yes
Overwrite Fibre Channel Fibre Channel Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...  hard disks		Yes	Yes
Overwrite USB hard disks	Yes	Yes	Yes
Erase several disks simultaneously		Yes	Yes
Overwrite RAID RAID RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...  logical volumes		Yes	Yes
Overwrite RAID RAID RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...  physical volumes		SCSI	SAS
Overwrite HPA Host Protected Area The host protected area, sometimes referred to as hidden protected area, is an area of a hard drive that is not normally visible to an operating system .- History :HPA was first introduced in the ATA-4 standard cxv .-How it works:...  and DCO Device configuration overlay Device configuration overlay is a hidden area on many of today’s hard disk drives . Usually when information is stored in either the DCO or host protected area , it is not accessible by the BIOS, OS, or the user. However, certain tools can be used to modify the HPA or DCO...  areas	Yes	Yes	Yes
Overwrite IDE, SAS Serial Attached SCSI Serial Attached SCSI is a computer bus used to move data to and from computer storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces the parallel SCSI bus technology that first appeared in the mid 1980s in data centers and workstations,...  and SCSI SCSI Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...  remapped sectors	Yes	Yes	Yes

Certifications

Blancco’s products exceed international security standards and adhere to international certification processes. As early as 2003, Blancco’s Data Cleaner was the only data erasure utility to have passed confidential and top secret standards and be accredited as an HMG InfoSec-approved product by the Communications Electronics Security Group

Government Communications Headquarters

The Government Communications Headquarters is a British intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the UK government and armed forces...

– the United Kingdom’s government information technology security regulators.
Blancco’s security certificates and approvals include:

• United States Department of Defense
• National Security Testing Lab (NSTL)
• Communications Electronics Security Group: United Kingdom Information Technology Group (CESG)
• Defense InfoSec Product Co-Operation Group: United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (DIPCOG)
• Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM)
• The Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW)
• Netherlands National Communication Security Agency (NLNCSA)
• Central Information Systems Security Division (ANSSI), France
• Refurbished (reuse) Information Technology Equipment Association (RITEA), Japan
• Swedish Armed Forces
• NATO Recommendation (Blancco listed in the NATO Information Assurance Catalogue)
• TÜV Hannover/Sachsen-Anhalt (TÜV) Confirmation – a commercial organization dealing with technical safety, the commercial efficiency of plant and environmental protection.
• General Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands (AIVD)

Standards

The following international standards are supported by Blancco software:

Magnetic erasure standards:

• Air Force System Security Instructions 5020
• Bruce Schneier's algorithm
• BSI (German overwrite standard by Federal Office for Information Security/ Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik)
• German Standard VSITR
• HMG Infosec Standard No: 5 (baseline) [Note: Certified versions: 4.5 HMG and 3.7r1
• HMG Infosec Standard No: 5 (enhanced) [Note: Certified versions: 4.5 HMG and 3.7r1
• Navy Staff Office Publication (NAVSO P-5239-26) for RLL
• NSA (Overwrite standard by National Security Agency)
• OPNAVINST 5239.1A
• Peter Gutmann's algorithm
• The National Computer Security Center (NCSC-TG-025)
• U.S. Department of Defense Sanitizing (DOD 5220.22-M, DOD 5220.22-M ECE)
• U.S. Army AR380-19
• NIST 800-88/ATA secure erase
• Extended NIST 800-88

Flash based erasure standards:

• NAVSO P-5239-26 (TOP SECRET) for SSD
• NAVSO P-5239-26 (SECRET or CONFIDENTIAL) for SSD
• US Department of Defense Sanitizing DOD 5220.22-M for SSD

Awards

Data erasure tools from Blancco have garnered awards and accolades that include:

• October 2001: “Golden Key” Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry
• October 2003: “Ohto” Finnish Security Group, FinnSecurity and Security Magazine
• January 2004: “2004 Industry Award for Commercialized Innovation” Finnish Software Industry
• May 2006: “2005 Export Prize” Finnish Chamber of Commerce, North Karelia Chapter

External links

• Blancco website
• Data erasure website
• The Communications Electronics Security Group