GarUlbricht7@netscape.net wrote:
Andreas Winkelmann <ml@awinkelmann.de> wrote:
VANTASSLE, GEORDON M (SBCSI) wrote:
Can anyone tell me if there is a utility that comes with SuSE 8.2 Pro that I could use to securel wipe an entire hard-disk?
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I was actually hoping for something more secure (e.g. with PGP I have...
Ok, then take a hammer and have fun...
Hmm, more secure than zeros all over the harddisk? I would be very interested in this solution!
Hi Andreas and Geordon
Andreas --- you just gave it, "wipe" is nice, and your solution (of zeros) would work against the ordinary person,
and I liked The Purple Tiger's take-off on your solution: namely:
for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ; do echo "Run $i of 20"; dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hdx ; done .
However, if it was me I would use both "random" and "urandom" see "man random" but your hammer, followed by a hacksaw, and then a blow tourch is the best. Reduce the hardrive (or whatever) to ash and then scatter the ashes.... "reap the wind"
Then if you want, buy a brand new drive (or whatever) and return the machine with the new drive.
If you are really paranoid, "wipe" the new drive (or whatever) in case it was a "return" and the store lied that it was new..
Reason, it is rumored that NSA has techniques for recovering data which has remained on drive for some period of time, even if zeros or random noise is written over it later. It has something to do with "weak electrical fields". I got that from a "crypto guy" who sounded like he knew what he was talking about...of course he may have been just blowing smoke... I am easily fooled.
Friendly greetings, Gar
It has nothing to do with NASA, and your "crypto friendly guy" is not just a pretty face. The US Department of Defense suggests using 3 overwrites of each sector with specific characters - and many experts recommend doing at least 7 such passes to feel safe that the underlying data cannot be retrieved. Now, bear in mind that tryng to retrieve data which was overwritten takes some expensive equipment so your data would need to be pretty special for someone to try and retrieve it. Neverthless, go visit (for starters at least) www.killdisk.com which has a freebie and a professional disk wiping program (for Windows, alas) and has info about the whole need-to-wipe-the-HD matter. Cheers. -- Understanding only begins with the act of perception.