Hard drive destruction 'crucial'

[hamba]

Hard drive destruction 'crucial'

The only way to stop fraudsters stealing information from old computer hard drives is by destroying them completely, a study has found.

Which? Computing magazine recovered 22,000 "deleted" files from eight computers purchased on eBay.

Criminals source old computers from internet auction sites or in rubbish tips, to find users' valuable details.

Freely available software can be used to recover files that users think they have permanently deleted.

A number of software solutions exist to definitively erase files and information, and a sufficiently strong magnet could do the job.

But the most straightforward solution, according to Which?, is complete destruction - and it recommends using a hammer.

A number of recent cases have shown the dangers in disposing of second-hand equipment, from which details as well as other personal files can be retrieved.

"PCs contain more valuable personal information than ever as people increasingly shop online, use social networking sites and take digital photos," said Sarah Kidner, editor of Which? Computing.

"Such information could bring identity thieves a hefty payday."

"It sounds extreme, but the only way to be 100% safe is to smash your hard drive into smithereens."

Because those smithereens contain environmentally harmful materials, they should be recycled - for instance at the vendor from whom a new hard drive is purchased.


Darren Waters works hard to destroy a hard drive




Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/01/08 00:55:31 GMT
© BBC MMIX

 

[Munkey]

Doesn't a 'write zero' completely format the HD?

 

[karym6]

Nope, thats just a low level format.

You can use tools like Eraser to clean your drive, but it only works with continual use and even then it doesnt get rid of everything on your drive.

I recently junked a few old HDD's by taking them apart and microwaving the platters (made a bad smell). The only reason I did that is due to me having a persistent problem with security throughout the second half of last year.

 

[Seedy_r0m]

The best advise I was given was from a facilities bloke when I asked if I could buy a spare HDD when worked in Motorola.

He said that they "batter the drives with a hammer, grind them down into dust, then shoot the pieces into the North Sea"

Wise advise indeed.

 

[dave24]

More or less , you would need some very sophisticated equipment to get anything off it after doing this.

Doesn't a 'write zero' completely format the HD?

 

[daveleebond]

@Dave24 - but I bet Grisom and his team could completely restore it

screw write zero, when working for the police we used to chuck the drives in this machine with 2 rotating barrels that would physically shred the drive casing and platters.

 

[Seedy_r0m]

@Dave24 - but I bet Grisom and his team could completely restore it

screw write zero, when working for the police we used to chuck the drives in this machine with 2 rotating barrels that would physically shred the drive casing and platters.

I also worked in a large steel making facility up here.

On occasion, the local police would throw knives, guns, pr0n & all sorts of unsavoury stuff into the molten slag pit to dispose of it.

Once it was thrown in there...no-one would be able to get that back.
It used to make the earth underneath it melt, form beads, and then throw it into the air before "raining" back down.

'Twas a great sight...especially at night, as it used to light the sky bright red.

 

[pipsqueaker]

Chuck it in my bitumen boiler. F-ck all comes out of that.

 

[karym6]

More or less , you would need some very sophisticated equipment to get anything off it after doing this.

Lol, no. Writing zeroes will probably make it a little harder to recover files under Windows - but thats about it.

I accidentally destroyed a HDD that contained my MP3 collection. Took me 15 hours to recover all of them plus files I thought I had deleted years ago.

 

[davidh]

i have been told that air pressure will destroy a hdd
i tried it going up to the top of a ten story block of flats tried it
but it still worked so dropped it and guess what it didnt work then so to destroy a hdd drop it off a ten story block of flats

 

[dave24]

LOL,Yes m8

Lol, no. Writing zeroes will probably make it a little harder to recover files under Windows - but thats about it.

I accidentally destroyed a HDD that contained my MP3 collection. Took me 15 hours to recover all of them plus files I thought I had deleted years ago.

 

[karym6]

LOL,Yes m8

Seriously, Acronis will let you get it back under Windows. A low level format will not completely destroy all your data, which is why the article Hamba has linked was published.

A low level format just makes it a bit longer to get the files back, but pretty much anyone with time on their hands at home can do it.

 

[daveleebond]

so you reckon you could get data back from a 9 pass random character wipe of the entire physical disk?

 

[karym6]

so you reckon you could get data back from a 9 pass random character wipe of the entire physical disk?

random chars? Probably, but again it would take time - it doesnt take a foresnic lab. That is the point of the article and the point I am making.

To get even close to destroying your data, you would need to perform such a pass on a regular basis, for instance if you were to use Eraser every day on all the free space on your disk you would get close to destroying your data - but you can still recover it. I know as I have actually done this. As I mentioned before, I recovered my entire MP3 collection when I collapsed a partition by mistake. When I recovered all the files from it I found older files from years back that should have been removed with an older file wiper I was using - which employed 15 passes. And that was just with Acronis.

I think the point of this post is that yes, you think you are removing your files securely - but in reality there is plenty of software out there that can recover it for you.

If you wanted true peace of mind that a casual snooper wouldnt find it so easy to recover files you thought you had destroyed, then use XFS as your file system. Simply destroy the primary and secondary superblocks and thats it. I dont think there is any commercially available recovery software that will recover your files. But a forensic lab - probably.

And the reason I know this? My old NAS uses XFS as its file system. I knackered it at the begining of the week and have found no way to recover the files from it.

 

[daveleebond]

no it is something i would probably do if selling a pc/drive on.

Or degauss it, but then it may never live again

 

[DiamondGeezer]

We use one of these degausser, makes a nice door stop from a HD

Degausser.co.uk = one stop total magnetic media erasure, degauss for security hard drives, tapes, floppy disks, video, DAT, data

 

[karym6]

We use one of these degausser, makes a nice door stop from a HD

Degausser.co.uk = one stop total magnetic media erasure, degauss for security hard drives, tapes, floppy disks, video, DAT, data

out of interest, how much do they cost?

 

[Munkey]

Seriously, Acronis will let you get it back under Windows. A low level format will not completely destroy all your data, which is why the article Hamba has linked was published.

A low level format just makes it a bit longer to get the files back, but pretty much anyone with time on their hands at home can do it.

I have used Acronis to try and retrieve/recover data that was write zeroed and it failed miserably.

Damn I have loads of hard drives that I was going to sell at some stage, now I'm going to end up with a huge raid array or something similar.

 

[nozzer]

Using a hammer on a hard drive may deter most people from playing with it but its little deterrant to a professional recovery lab. I've seen disk platters that were seriously bent and physically cut into several parts reconstructed using magnetic imaging techniques.

I've even seen information lifted from drives that have been in a fire. As long as the drives dont get above 700degC or so they can still be imaged.

Even degaussers can leave traces that can often lead to information being recovered by magnetic probability analysis methods. Most people tend to use degaussers incorrectly anyway.

 

[karym6]

I have used Acronis to try and retrieve/recover data that was write zeroed and it failed miserably.

Damn I have loads of hard drives that I was going to sell at some stage, now I'm going to end up with a huge raid array or something similar.

If you use the latest version, it will recover files. Probably not all of them, but a good deal of them