sanitizing disc

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2014-02-03 at 17:00 +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
> Oh, yes, it's expensive, very - but I have seen some amazing
> demonstrations. Like, disk platters from a server thrown out of a
> moving truck, smashed to pieces by traffic, bits of drive dug out of
> farmer's neighbouring fields... 80-85% recovery of all files.

A randomly violent attack is very different to a directed attack. A
random impact on your body will probably do you no harm, but let a
hostile attacker hit you undefended and you will probably be dead.

> It's enough. The stories of bits of "hidden" data are mostly just fairytales.

Yes - but stories about software bugs are not.

> The message needs to be broadcast that physical destruction of disks
> is NOT secure and does NOT prevent getting the data back.

All security is a compromise between cost and effectiveness. A
sledgehammer will do the trick against all but the most determined
attacker (and in practice will stop even the most determined attacker). 

The sledgehammer method is also very fast, and can be applied against
any drive, even if you can no longer power it up or control it (for
example, a failed drive, or one you no longer have a controller for). Or
if you just forgot to run shred before you took it out of the
system :-) 

In short, horses for courses.

> the disks to be reused. Reuse is a hugely important factor. Ask
> charities like ComputerAid.

Yes - as I said, you would only destroy your drive if you were very
concerned about keeping the data from other eyes.


Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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