IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [destruction]

Disposal of storage media, destroying the data stored on it. For the disposal of data, use the tag [deletion].

Disposal of storage media containing sensitive data, i.e. destruction of the media or at least of the data stored on it. This can involve wiping or overwriting the data before the actual disposal of the physical media. Destruction of the media that the data is stored on, can involve crushing, burning, melting, grinding etc.

After media destruction, the data may still be present on other media. For the closely related problem of securely disposing of data, see the tag .

Further reading

38 questions
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How can I reliably erase all information on a hard drive?

As storage technologies change over time, using different encodings and remappings to deal with sector errors, the best way to permanently erase/wipe/shred data changes also. Methods for flash drives and other solid-state drives are covered nicely…
nealmcb
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How do you destroy an old hard drive?

How do you destroy an old hard drive? To be clear, unlike questions Secure hard drive disposal: How to erase confidential information and How can I reliably erase all information on a hard drive? I do not want to erase the data and keep the hard…
Xonatron
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Is it enough to only wipe a flash drive once?

According to the documentation for the "diskscrb" command for wiping conventional hard drives: http://www.forensics-intl.com/diskscrb.html "Conforms to and exceeds the Government Standard set forth in DoD 5220.22-M. Can overwrite ambient data areas…
LanceBaynes
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Have I properly destroyed my SSD?

I held every chip (without desoldering, they were still onboard) in a lighter flame for a minute or two. They started "popping" a little if that indicates anything. Then I drove a nail into every chip (approximately through the center) with the…
ThrowawayGuest10
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Can a hard drive be destroyed by drowning?

These are some ways of disposing of hard drives: Special firms, degaussing, hammering, pulling apart. Can this be accomplished more quickly by drowning it? Fill a bucket with water, maybe add some aggressive cleaning products, throw the drive in,…
Strapakowsky
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Getting rid of a large quantity of paper

Say you were in charge of getting rid of a large quantity of paper - up to 1,000 in a row. It can't be used as scratch paper because it contains confidential information. It also can't be outsourced to third parties because the company isn't…
Renan
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Is it possible to construct a passively self-destructing message?

Is it possible to construct a message that passively degrades over time without requiring an external factor to destroy it? Things that are similar, but not what I mean: A hard drive that degrades over time may become harder to read, but if you…
kojiro
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Why are drives overwritten three times when being disposed of?

I am looking at the secure disposal of old flash drives, and one of the standards I have come across says that they should be overwritten three times. Why is one time not enough? I assume doing the process three times is more expensive than doing it…
Arlix
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Best method of retiring hard drives

What are some typical ways you guys retire hard drives? We have a hard drive that won't mount anymore (makes clicking sounds when it tries to mount). The data on it isn't necessarily sensitive (no financial records or the likes) but it does contain…
Safado
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How can I remotely wipe the contents of a Linux Laptop if its been stolen?

I am currently investigating using Linux Laptops for my development team. We currently run Windows. The one advantage that keeps coming up for Windows over Linux from a system administration / security perspective is the fact that if a laptop is…
rbieber
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Should a secure ATA erase be performed on a non-SSD drive?

When running the command hdparm -I /dev/sda the following output is generated. ATA device, with non-removable media Model Number: WDC WD10JPVX-75JC3T0 Serial Number: WX51A9324970 Firmware…
Motivated
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What is the current EU standard for data destruction?

I have been hunting around for a couple of weeks trying to find what the current standards for sensitive data destruction in the EU/UK are. If you look at the destruction companies they have several answers BS EN: 15713:2009 comes up a lot, but so…
EnviableOne
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Erasing a hard-disk, encrypting it as alternative?

I was pondering about this, sometimes people ask me to erase data on their drive. So I use a shredding program, which takes a long time. However what if instead of shredding all the files, I'd just use truecrypt to encrypt them. The disk would be…
Lucas Kauffman
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Secure hard drive disposal: How to erase confidential information

When it comes to disposing of hardware that may contain PII, confidential, or other sensitive material, how do you determine what needs special handling? What process do you use? I'd like to expand this question to not just include computer hard…
makerofthings7
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How can files be deleted in a HIPAA-compliant way?

Any material I've come up with for data destruction standards relate to completely wiping (ATA Secure Erase) and physically destroying hard drives, but I haven't been able to find much about standards for destroying individual files. Are there such…
John Straka
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