A Linux administrator needs to securely erase the contents of a hard disk.

Secure data destruction is an important security requirement addressed in Linux+ V8 objectives. When data must be permanently erased, standard file deletion commands are insufficient because they do not overwrite the data on disk.

The shred command is specifically designed to securely erase files or block devices by overwriting them multiple times with random data. Using sudo shred /dev/sda1 overwrites the entire partition, making data recovery extremely difficult or impossible. This aligns directly with Linux+ V8 best practices for secure data sanitization.

The other options are incorrect. rm -rf removes directory entries but does not overwrite disk data. parted rm deletes partition entries but leaves the underlying data intact. dd if=/dev/null writes zero bytes and does not overwrite existing data blocks.

Linux+ V8 documentation identifies shred as the most appropriate tool for secure erasure when compliance or confidentiality is required. Therefore, the correct answer is B.