Disk Wipe Methods

Killerpenguins lerninlinux at comcast.net
Tue Jan 21 22:19:27 CST 2003


When our spy plane crashed in China, the crew had been pouring acid on
the drives. Most governments in this day and age will take those drives,
stabilize and neutralize the acid, then dissect and run them under the
electron microscope.  I have known two people in security/spy  type
stuff, and one relative that is former military intel. I was informed
that even the acid won't have had time to do it's full effect for the
government who has the data and time.

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Densmore <DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com>
Subject: RE: Disk Wipe Methods

> I find it hard to believe that if a person wipes a disk, fills it with
> random numbers and then wipes it again and wipes it with 1s and 0s 
> thatany person could use an electron microscope to determine what 
> was on the
> system before other than the last set of numbers. I'd have to see an
> example of this. And how many people are going to destroy a hard drive
> to put it under an electron microscope to retrieve the data? assuming
> they even have access to an electron microscope. Someone who is going
> through this kind of trouble has already bugged your office and knows
> all your data anyway. This is in the realm of super-mega-paranoia. 
> lol.Or falls into the realm of pseudo-science. Sounds reasonable 
> until you
> look at it under a microscope.
> 
> Brian
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: KRFinch at dstsystems.com [KRFinch at dstsystems.com]
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 9:00 AM
> > To: Dustin Decker
> > Cc: kclug at kclug.org
> > Subject: Re: Disk Wipe Methods
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > There's no way to take data off of the disk so it can't be 
> > read by someone
> > willing to spend the money to do it.  After talking to a 
> > friend of mine
> > that worked in Naval Intelligence about it, he said that he 
> > wouldn't even
> > start to feel comfortable about covering his tracks until he had
> > overwritten all of the tracks on the disk at least 1500 times.  It's
> > amazing what you can pull off a drive with an electron microscope.
> > 
> > Don't take the risk.  Disks are cheap compared to the cost of 
> losing a
> > client or getting sued.  Buy a new one for each client.
> > 
> > My $0.02...
> > 
> > - Kevin
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >                                                               
> >                                                          
> >                     Dustin Decker                             
> >                                                          
> >                     <dustind at moon-lite.com       To:     
> > kclug at kclug.org                                               
> >                     >                            cc:          
> >                                                          
> >                     Sent by:                     Subject:     
> > Disk Wipe Methods                                        
> >                     owner-kclug at marauder.i                    
> >                                                          
> >                     lliana.net                                
> >                                                          
> >                                                               
> >                                                          
> >                                                               
> >                                                          
> >                     01/20/2003 03:13 PM                       
> >                                                          
> >                                                               
> >                                                          
> >                                                               
> >                                                          
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Howdy all,
> > I have an intersting project on my plate at the day job.  
> > Once in a blue
> > moon (prolly more like each full moon) we overnight a 30GB Iomega 
> USB> drive to a client, they put a backup of their database on it 
> > (between 4
> > and 10 GB) and ship it back to us.
> > 
> > Eventually, the drive will be sent to another client.  We're 
> > dealing with
> > personally identifiable information in the health care mode 
> > here, so in
> > the interest of avoiding a HIPAA snaufu I'm quite serious 
> > about ensuring
> > that there aren't any traces of the previous clients' db on 
> > the drive when
> > it ships.  I've been making use of BCWipe on the Windows platform to
> > accomplish this to the DoD 5200.28 standard, but I'm interested in
> > throwing this on a Linux box to get it done as this is an 
> > extremely time
> > consuming process.  (Would prefer to start it on Linux and walk 
> away.)> 
> > Any suggestions on utilities in the Linux world that can do this?
> > Dustin
> > 
> > --
> > *-----------------------------------*
> > | Dustin Decker                     |
> > | dustind at moon-lite.com       
> > *-----------------------------------------*
> > | http://www.dustindecker.com | Even in evil, we discern rays 
> > of light  |
> > | Moon-Lite Computing         | and hope, and gradually come 
> > to see,    |
> > | 913.579.7117                | in suffering and temptation, 
> > proofs and |
> > *-----------------------------| instruments of the sublimest 
> > purposes   |
> >                               | of wisdom and love.           
> >           |
> >                               |                     -- William 
> Ellery> Channing      |
> >                               
> > *-----------------------------------------*
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > majordomo at kclug.org
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > majordomo at kclug.org
> > 
> 
> 
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