accessla.blogg.se

False: Peter Gutmann thinks data should be overwritten with 35 passes to prevent recovery.False: Overwriting data with multiple passes makes it harder to recover than overwriting it with a single pass.

False: Data on a hard drive overwritten by one pass can be recovered by powerful government agencies.

Before discussing what is true, let’s preview what is not: Most of the confusion regarding the topic of data remanence (data left behind after it is deleted) is because of myths and urban legends. Regardless of the tools you use, please read this guide carefully and completely. This guide will explain how 1 pass is enough, but 35 passes are not enough. Any product or method suggesting a convenient, comprehensive solution to security is deceptive: convenience and security oppose each other.

Some applications even advertise “advanced” erasure methods referencing important names in security such as Gutmann, the United States Department of Defense, and the NSA, but these references often mislead people to waste time on snake oil technological remedies while ignoring important basics. Normally when software deletes a file, only the “metadata” is erased: that means the complete contents often can easily be recovered, so BleachBit (and similar applications) offer secure erase features (also called secure wipe, secure overwriting, or file shredding) to permanently remove data.