data shredder

[Rashkae]

NoOp wrote:
>
> 
> o I recommended looking at shred and scrub.
> o Gilles recommended TrueCrypt (which isn't really an answer to the OP's
> question, and has nothing to do with the OP's question)
> o Amadee recomends dd - OK, but is this practical on a single file?
> o Kent write some nice rules about security
> o Ray does the same as Kent (who cares?) Security rules regarding
> passwords et al have been in place since I worked security & ciphony in
> the 1980's. Are they different now?
> o Karl of course throws security to the wind... Boggles the mind.
> 
> So, other than my recommendations regarding shred & scrub and Gilles
> obtuse recommendation about TrueCrypt (which I use) but doesn't have
> diddly squat to do with shredding exisiting files etc.), do any of you
> thread drifting 'experts' have a recommendation for the OP?
> 

I haven't looked at scrub, nor have I really been closely following yet
another long mis-informed chase into the paranoia rabbit hole.  However,
as seen by shred's own man page, you can't count on that program doing
what you want on modern filesystems.  That's why we come to dd as the
only way to be sure you overwrite what you want.  (by filling the entire
free hard drive space in a new file, as root, then sync, then delete.)
The only question is what do you fill it with?  I think filling the file
with zeros once is perfectly adequate for anyone not trying to hide
plans of the illuminati new world order takeover.  For those who can't
feel better otherwise, you can repeat the process 3x with random data.