#secure-erase

Cleaning up sensitive files: How to sanitize storage

[cfsp key=”getamac.jpg”]”The most common reason for wanting to clean up sensitive files on internal or external storage is when you’re going to sell or give your Mac (or drive) away,” Howard Oakley writes for Eclectic Light Company.

“Before you even think about how to clean these files up, you must know what they contain, and what risk they would pose if someone else were to be able to view…

How to securely erase data from your Mac and external drives

“Everyone needs to securely erase data at some point — even on a Mac,” Jay Vrijenhoek writes for Intego. “After all, securely erasing your data ensures your personal and private information does not end up being found and abused by someone else.”

“Whether it’s the NSA, a burglar or someone who rummages through garbage for old hard drives with the intention of extracting data, we can…

Solution: Is using multiple passes for wiping a disk really necessary? #development #it #computers

Is using multiple passes for wiping a disk really necessary?

To stupid people, like me, you would have thought overwriting each bit on a disk would render the data completely unrecoverable.

Why do disk wiping tools have the option for multiple passes, i.e. 3 or 5, even 7 and different methods? Surely the first pass does the job?

My question – Is it just down to pure paranoia or should I be using…

How-to: Why is my /dev/random so slow when using dd? #development #dev #solution

Why is my /dev/random so slow when using dd?

I am trying to semi-securely erase a bunch of hard drives. The following is working at 20-50Mb/s

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

But

dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda

seems not to work. Also when I type

dd if=/dev/random of=stdout

It only gives me a few bytes regardless of what I pass it for bs= and count=

Am I using /dev/random wrong? What other info…

Resolved: How to wipe free disk space in Linux? #dev #it #computers

How to wipe free disk space in Linux?

When a file is deleted, its contents may still be left in the filesystem, unless explicitly overwritten with something else. The wipe command can securely erase files, but does not seem to allow erasing free disk space not used by any files.

What should I use to achieve this?

Answer [by Ilya Biryukov]: How to wipe free disk space in Linux?

Once the file is…

“Back in the days when mechanical hard drives with spinning platters were the norm, you could simply hand your old hard drive to a deserving relative or friend as an upgrade, get a thank you, and call it a day,” Jon L. Jacobi reports for PCWorld. “It’s…