Hi
what do you think about Wiping Free-disk space (and single files) on enterprise PCs using Gutmann's 35 passes method with software ERASER?
Can this one considered as a strong, valid strategy against forensic analysis?
Thank you so much for your comments
Mark
Sod that. I'd settle for 1 pass p
(thats a technical term)
Seems 1 pass is more than enough http//
I whole heartedly concur, that's a great link Ronan!
35 passes may be nice, and it will work, but in the long run you are doing more damage by writing to the entire disk that many times and are shortening the life of the drive un-necessarily. A single pass will work, or even a three pass is more than enough, and much less ware and tare.
The only time I'd use more than 1 pass is if I was being paid by the hour. )
The chances of recovering anything after a single pass is improbable (less than a ten-thousandth of a percent). People will come on here saying that they can recover anything regardless but I'm yet to see anyone successfully recover any meaningful data.
The ministry of defence have an interesting (paranoid) way of destroying data. First they wipe the drives (several passes). Then, in some cases, the drive is degaussed. The the drive is ground up into a fine powder.
Now, you may think that this is paranoid enough but then the powder is placed in a box in storage - just in case someone can reassemble the drive from the powder.
But, if you're happy with simply wiping, one pass will do the job.
Thank you all men for your hints! )
Just a question. In your opinion would it be someway useful to apply a defragmentation (through JKDefrag GUI) before wiping free disk space using Guttmann?
Or is it just useless?
35 passes may be nice, and it will work, but in the long run you are doing more damage by writing to the entire disk that many times and are shortening the life of the drive un-necessarily. A single pass will work, or even a three pass is more than enough, and much less ware and tare.
What about this kind of strategy?
1) Gutmann - 35 passes just once, wiping and shredding free disk space
2) applying defragmentation once a week
3) Doing a DoD 7 passes for frre space on a weekly basis.
4) Naturally remembering to use the context menu to Erase files instead of pressing Canc on the keyboard or doing drag-and-drop to Trash Can.
What about this kind of strategy?
1) Gutmann - 35 passes just once, wiping and shredding free disk space
2) applying defragmentation once a week
3) Doing a DoD 7 passes for frre space on a weekly basis.
4) Naturally remembering to use the context menu to Erase files instead of pressing Canc on the keyboard or doing drag-and-drop to Trash Can.
Even implementing that, your day to day use would leave traces. You'd have to run CCleaner every couple of hours too and set it to erase everything including erasing file slack. You'd also need to set Windows to wipe the page file, turn off system restore, compact your mail files, etc.
This all seems a bit excessive as you would be spending more time erasing data than producing it in the first place. So why bother even turning the computer on?
Even after doing all that are you confident that no-one would find anything?
This is a fun topic though.