Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations Chriss Miller on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Can data be wiped if hardware stolen
- Thread starter joepalm
- Start date
Is someone trying to say that a "government class" wipe means that a government can get the "wiped" info back and "joe bloggs" can't.
I would genuinely hope that there are less severe ways of destroying data, than putting the hard-drive into acid.
All the best.
I would genuinely hope that there are less severe ways of destroying data, than putting the hard-drive into acid.
All the best.
setnaffa or cheerio,
If what you both state is correct are all the disk wiping/cleaning utilities that one can purchase ineffective?
If you are correct then some of the company's claims are to say the least misleading. Your answer to the above post interests me as I have a brother who purchased a license for one of these programmes.
Having read your replies and sitting here reading the claims of this product and I quote, " ****** is designed to completely eliminate sensitive data from your computer."
"Extensive erasing capabilities of ****** make sure that not even a trace remains after erasing data."
Those statements seem quite unequivocal in their meaning.
Must admit my brother is extremely happy with the programme but if they do not function as claimed there are people who think they have erased sensitive data from their machines when in fact it is recoverable.
Ted
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out
If what you both state is correct are all the disk wiping/cleaning utilities that one can purchase ineffective?
If you are correct then some of the company's claims are to say the least misleading. Your answer to the above post interests me as I have a brother who purchased a license for one of these programmes.
Having read your replies and sitting here reading the claims of this product and I quote, " ****** is designed to completely eliminate sensitive data from your computer."
"Extensive erasing capabilities of ****** make sure that not even a trace remains after erasing data."
Those statements seem quite unequivocal in their meaning.
Must admit my brother is extremely happy with the programme but if they do not function as claimed there are people who think they have erased sensitive data from their machines when in fact it is recoverable.
Ted
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out
The guys at have a simple boot floppy that lets you access NTFS files from A dos BOOT DISK. So XP can not be protecting your files too good. Maybe you should just encrypt your files.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
franklin97355
Technical User
Some data may be recoverable but the amount ov work and money needed to recover it isn't worth it to most people. If you had just assinated the president they might try but if you had the access codes to your ATM......
Hear me, and hear me all well .....
THE FOLLOWING METHOD IS DEVELOPED BY MYSELF AS A WAY TO SECURE MY REMOVABLE MEDIA SO THEY CAN'T BE READ IN ANY OTHER COMPUTER !!!!!
NOTE: This method required extensive technical skills and a lot of nerve (and coolness) to make it work. In the near future i will try to apply the same method to HDD as well.
PREFACE
No matter how you write the data they can easily be decrypted. The problem is that you can't make the HDD store the data in a different way. What you tell it, it writes, and writes it how it feels right and more important, without asking you !!!
SUBJECT
The key to the solution is to perform one or all of the followings to the IDE cable:
1. Scramble the Address Buss lines together (CAREFULL)
2. Scramble the Data Bus lines together (CAREFULL)
or do the following to the HDD (YOUR RISK, NOT MINE)
1. Invert the motor direction (YOU'RE ASKING FOR IT)
2. Make a permanent soldering between the MASTER pins so that it will not work as a slave drive, and maybe get damaged. Just make sure that the solder it is not clearly visible and doesn't raise suspicions.
Now, as for what pins of the HDD and / or the IDE cable are the AB & DB lines. I can't say because such knowledge should be kept as secret as possible !!!
P.S: If you look hard enough in the net you should have no problem finding what you're looking for !!!
Have fun & be very, very carefull with the hardware !!!
Michael Manos
Quality Assurance Director
KATMETAL Corp
THE FOLLOWING METHOD IS DEVELOPED BY MYSELF AS A WAY TO SECURE MY REMOVABLE MEDIA SO THEY CAN'T BE READ IN ANY OTHER COMPUTER !!!!!
NOTE: This method required extensive technical skills and a lot of nerve (and coolness) to make it work. In the near future i will try to apply the same method to HDD as well.
PREFACE
No matter how you write the data they can easily be decrypted. The problem is that you can't make the HDD store the data in a different way. What you tell it, it writes, and writes it how it feels right and more important, without asking you !!!
SUBJECT
The key to the solution is to perform one or all of the followings to the IDE cable:
1. Scramble the Address Buss lines together (CAREFULL)
2. Scramble the Data Bus lines together (CAREFULL)
or do the following to the HDD (YOUR RISK, NOT MINE)
1. Invert the motor direction (YOU'RE ASKING FOR IT)
2. Make a permanent soldering between the MASTER pins so that it will not work as a slave drive, and maybe get damaged. Just make sure that the solder it is not clearly visible and doesn't raise suspicions.
Now, as for what pins of the HDD and / or the IDE cable are the AB & DB lines. I can't say because such knowledge should be kept as secret as possible !!!
P.S: If you look hard enough in the net you should have no problem finding what you're looking for !!!
Have fun & be very, very carefull with the hardware !!!
Michael Manos
Quality Assurance Director
KATMETAL Corp
rockerfellerz
IS-IT--Management
Micman, I'd still agree with franklin97355, it's time and money. If the G men want to read your disk they will do it no mater what you did to your hard disk. As for soldering the master pins, it won't help when they remove the platters from the drive and use there own controllers to read it....
Of course it would stop the average data snoop in their tracks, but so will encryption...
If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ
Of course it would stop the average data snoop in their tracks, but so will encryption...
If you're going through Hell...keep going... (Winston Churchill)
RocKeRFelLerZ
rockerfellerz, i know you're right about the 2 operations on the HDD. Infact i too believe that making any king of change (physical or logical) to the hard disk body itself in not so secure since it will be bypassed.
BUT ....
What if you swap AddressBus Lines 1 & 2 for example. Then an address that looked like this
0100101010110.......0110 would look like this >>>
1000101010110.......0110.
Now if you scramble several AB lines with each other then an address of
1010101010101.......1010 could possibly look like this >>>
1001101001000.......0011
and since the actual encryption is being done outside the HDD body, you can rest assured that no Removeble storage device would play along into any other computer.
I'm pretty convinced that even a goverment agency would not only be discouraged to continue but if they do choose to go thru with this, well ....... by the time they will have decrypted saddam's HDD about his secret plans, his grand-children would have died out of old age !!!!!
The complexity of the method above is similar to the following broblem.
I will give you a B&W bitmap picture sized 640x480 pixels which has black background and consists of 183.548 white pixels.
Now, i want you to try and combine all the pixels together to find out what the picture really shows.
SOLUTION: Even if make all the possible combinations, you will end up with literally thousands of solutions showing, from a COW, DOG, MAN, TURKEY, FLOWER to the HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE !!!!!!
How's that for complexity?
Michael Manos
Quality Assurance Director
KATMETAL Corp
BUT ....
What if you swap AddressBus Lines 1 & 2 for example. Then an address that looked like this
0100101010110.......0110 would look like this >>>
1000101010110.......0110.
Now if you scramble several AB lines with each other then an address of
1010101010101.......1010 could possibly look like this >>>
1001101001000.......0011
and since the actual encryption is being done outside the HDD body, you can rest assured that no Removeble storage device would play along into any other computer.
I'm pretty convinced that even a goverment agency would not only be discouraged to continue but if they do choose to go thru with this, well ....... by the time they will have decrypted saddam's HDD about his secret plans, his grand-children would have died out of old age !!!!!
The complexity of the method above is similar to the following broblem.
I will give you a B&W bitmap picture sized 640x480 pixels which has black background and consists of 183.548 white pixels.
Now, i want you to try and combine all the pixels together to find out what the picture really shows.
SOLUTION: Even if make all the possible combinations, you will end up with literally thousands of solutions showing, from a COW, DOG, MAN, TURKEY, FLOWER to the HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE !!!!!!
How's that for complexity?
Michael Manos
Quality Assurance Director
KATMETAL Corp
blacksteve
Technical User
Hi
In the AA (automobile association) I beleive that the portables issued to the breakdown staff have such a feature. The mechanic told me that if a laptop gets stolen its possible to wipe it from base. I think they have some form of satellite comms built into the portable.
It might also be a rumour
In the AA (automobile association) I beleive that the portables issued to the breakdown staff have such a feature. The mechanic told me that if a laptop gets stolen its possible to wipe it from base. I think they have some form of satellite comms built into the portable.
It might also be a rumour
muffinresearch
MIS
Things to bear in mind. Boot up password/wiping utility is not really a option. Any investigator looking for something will always mount the drive in readonly on another machine in a lab.
Would suggest buying PGP and using the encrypted disk feature.
This will prevent your data from being obtained. Just have to make sure that the password you use to protect the data is a very secure one.
PGP also has a free space wiping feature that can ensure security of free space.
Mocharesearch
Would suggest buying PGP and using the encrypted disk feature.
This will prevent your data from being obtained. Just have to make sure that the password you use to protect the data is a very secure one.
PGP also has a free space wiping feature that can ensure security of free space.
Mocharesearch
Why not just run off a "thumb-drive? Put the program and data on the tiny drive and keep it in your pocket? You could also run the program on any system that recognizes the drive. They can even password protect the thumb-drive in case they kidnap you!
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question
