Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Mythbuster: Yes, One Pass Wiping Will Suffice
January 26, 2011
If I had a dollar for every time someone insisted that more than a single wipe is necessary to wipe a drive securely, I'd be a rich woman.
The true believer will often whisper conspiratorially about the data recovery abilities of the NSA, the Chinese government or cybercriminals. The truth? For all the Cassandra-like wailings of doom, no one has ever documented the recovery of data from from a drive that was wiped once using a capable product – and there is a legion of them.
Craig Wright, a Director with Information Defense in Australia, has written an excellent blog post on this subject. He also ably dispenses with silly myths about data destruction by airport body scanners and the over-hyped ability of driving over a hard drive with a 2.5 ton vehicle to destroy data. Not only a lot of trouble, but pretty ineffective.
As Craig notes, there is a lot of FUD swirling around these discussions. He does a good job of shedding some scientific light.
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