News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Can I erase sensitive data on an old hard drive with Neodymium Magnets?. Parent comment

Re:Can I erase sensitive data on an old hard drive with Neod... by FooHentai on Sunday December 03, 2017 @02:51PM (#15839169)
What's your threat model? Data must not be recoverable for at least the next X years, or data must not be recoverable within any future time frame, no exceptions?

For the former, you're absolutely right. For the latter, multiple-pass overwrite provides greater assurance than single pass. Following that up with physical destruction of the platters provides further assurance.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Can I erase sensitive data on an old hard drive with Neod... by KozmoNau7 on Monday December 04, 2017 @05:40AM (#15842927)
Why even bother with overwriting the data if you're just going to physically destroy the platters and/or heat them beyond their curie point anyway?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Can I erase sensitive data on an old hard drive with Neod... by FooHentai on Monday December 04, 2017 @04:38PM (#15847767)
Timeliness, usually. Destruction is usually a batch job so if you care about risk of data exposure in the time lag between being able to wipe the drive (usually an online, relatively low-hassle activity) and destroying the drive, wiping is worthwhile.

Again, thread modelling is crucial. There may be no point wiping!

[ Parent | on HN ]