Reliably Erasing Data from Flash-Based Solid State Drives

[Michael Haney]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Amedee Van Gasse
<amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be> wrote:
> On Thu, February 24, 2011 20:19, NoOp wrote:
>> When you think you've erased that USB flash drive or SSD card, think
>> again. See:
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/21/flash_drive_erasing_peril/
>> http://www.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/tech.html#Wei
>> http://www.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/full_papers/Wei.pdf
>>   [very interesting read]
>
> Summarized: if you want to store secure data on on SSD, encrypt the
> volume, and don't store the key on the same physical device.
>

Sound advice.  Regular users can use PGP or some other encryption
solution.  Government agencies have several that they use.  My
friend's agency has one, don't know which one, but his laptop HDD is
entire encrypted and password locked.  No encryption is 100%, but then
that can also be said of most disk erasing methods.  A determined tech
or someone with the right tools can recover data that has been erased
using US government approved disk wiping tools, so as I said nothing
is 100% secure.  Nothing is, as Scotty said, "You can'na change the
Law of Physics!"

-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
"The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking
of morality by religion." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
"The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and
politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there is no place
for it in the endeavor of science. " ~ Carl Sagan

Visit My Site:  http://sites.google.com/site/thezorch/home-1
To Contact Me:
http://sites.google.com/site/thezorch/home-1/zorch-central---contacts

Free Your PC from the Bondage of Windows http://www.ubuntu.com