Re: Overwrite deleted files

Stephen Adams <adamst@xxxxxxx> wrote:

me@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (=?ISO-8859-9?Q?Kir=E1ly?=) writes:

Or is there something about drives and data that I am missing?

Check this:

http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html

In short, as with many things, there is a tradeoff of cost/return.

Just an ordinary delete of a file will hide it from casual view, which
is probably enough for the majority of consumer applications. But it
doesn't take very much work to find the bits still on the disk. Anyone
half competent and putting much work into it can find it. Mostly what
you have achieved is hiding it from casual view. Much like putting the
keys to your safe in a desk drawer instead of hanging them on a hook by
the safe.

Overwriting the file even once is really adequate for most applications.
It takes serious work and equipment to recover overwritten data. The
attacker has to really want it badly.

But if your disk has, say, nuclear launch codes or something like that,
then the value is there for some people to spend the effort. And you
really, really don't want them to succeed. But if you have data whose
security is that critical, then you better not be asking here. Please.
For my daughrter's sake. :-(

--
Richard Maine | Good judgement comes from experience;
email: last name at domain . net | experience comes from bad judgement.
domain: summertriangle | -- Mark Twain
.

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