sanitizing disc

[Patrick Asselman]

On 2014-02-03 04:34, Karl Auer wrote:
> On Mon, 2014-02-03 at 02:40 +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
>> DBAN is the tool of choice.
>>
>> *More* secure than taking a hammer to it. Data can still be 
>> recovered from that.
>
> If you pulverise the platters and shatter the chips, there is no way 
> to
> recover more than the odd bit or two, and that only if you are lucky 
> and
> at very high cost in time and effort. Whereas any software process by
> definition can only destroy what the drive allows to be destroyed. 
> DBAN
> does nothing that shred doesn't do in that regard (as far as I can 
> tell
> - happy to be corrected if DBAN takes special technical steps).
>
>>From my reading, and with respect to modern disks, a single overwrite
> with random data is ample protection against anything but an 
> expensive
> and sophisticated attack. If you have data that is so valuable you 
> are
> actually concerned about an expensive and sophisticated attack, you
> should destroy the drive. Shredding it (physically) is a good move,
> especially if the shreds are then widely dispersed. But for all but 
> the
> most obsessively paranoid - or possessed of the most amazingly 
> sensitive
> data - four or five blows with a sledgehammer will do the job just 
> fine.
> And it's MUCH quicker than using DBAN or shred, plus it requires only
> the cheapest of support hardware.
>
> Of course, the TRULY obsessive will run DBAN or shed *then* destroy 
> the
> drive :-)
>
> Regards, K.

If you live in the UK you can also claim to be a reporter and have some 
data on the disc that came from the NSA. The authorities will then come 
and grind your disc for you, or so I am told. Downside is they will also 
grind your motherboard and memory chips, but surely that is a small 
price to pay for a perfectly secure government-overviewed data 
destruction :-P

Best regards,
Patrick Asselman