Disk Wipe Methods

[zscoundrel]

All drives will drift extremely small amounts as they age and it is 
theoretically possible to recover information by disassembling the drive 
treading the platters with a magnetic die that would then be visible 
under extremely high magnification.

Who would do it??? Probably no one.  After all, where is the reward?  To 
recover deleted info in a murder trial or from a top secret government 
project - perhaps it would be worthwhile - perhaps not.  Now if someone 
happens to come across Warren Buffet's hard drive, yeah, there might be 
some value in it, but unless there is serious information worth a lot of 
bucks, it just wouldn't worth it.

Brian Densmore wrote:
> 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 that
> any 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 [mailto: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                                
>>                                                         
>>                                                              
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>>                                                              
>>                                                         
>>                    01/20/2003 03:13 PM                       
>>                                                         
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>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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