2009/1/8 Stephen Rowles <stephen@???>:
>>
>> We've talked in the past about secure data erasure, using things like DBAN
>> which use wiping algorithms approved by the US DoD. The BBC news website
>> is
>> carrying a story today encouraging people to get physical and smash their
>> drives. Now, whilst I can see that putting a hard disk that has come
>> straight from a computer on ebay, or one that has been trivially formatted
>> or had files "erased" is probably a risk, is it really worth getting
>> people
>> to attack their hard drives with hammers? (Never mind the Health & Safety
>> implications!)
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7816446.stm
>>
>
> Maybe I'm ultra paranoid, but I've always gone for a full wipe.. and then
> physically smashed up the disk :)
>
> I remove and destroy the circuit board, then open the drive up and use a
> chisel / hammer to physically mangle the drive platters.
So maybe I'm being the opposite of ultra paranoid (infra paranoid?) -
I keep my disk platters as coasters. They soon collect enough
scratches from tea/coffee mugs that re reading them would be non
trivial.
Of course we have had these discussions before and as I recall one
position was that the only time a disk platter is completely safe is
when it has been reduced to slag in a furnace. And I expect someone
somewhere is working on that. I'm sure that if someone were
sufficiently determined they could recover something from the bag of
"smithereens" - after all, all that hitting a metal disk with a hammer
is doing is bending it rather extremely.
