Reliably Erasing Data from Flash-Based Solid State Drives

[Liam Proven]

On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 5:25 AM, Juan R. de Silva
<juan.r.d.silva at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:19:15 -0800, NoOp wrote:
>
>> When you think you've erased that USB flash drive or SSD card, think
>> again. See:
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/21/flash_drive_erasing_peril/
>> http://www.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/tech.html#Wei
>> http://www.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/full_papers/Wei.pdf
>>   [very interesting read]
>>
>> The PDF mentions "Applies patches to the Linux kernel from version 2.6.0
>> to 2.6.29" but no clue as to what they are referring to. Anyone know of
>> an Ubuntu/linux utility/patch that might be effective?
>
> I've recently discarded an old HDD containing some data on it. Here what
> I usually do. I disassemble the device, remove its plate/s and smash them
> in pieces physically. Pliers and a hummer are very helpful. After this I
> sleep well. :-)
>
> I think this "technology" though not being very High would resolve the
> problem with any SSD or USB flash drive too. :-)

DBAN is easier, quicker, less work and /more/ secure. Physical
destruction merely makes the data harder to recover, not impossible.

http://www.dban.org/

What's more, physical destruction is environmentally very bad - it
prevents reuse.

Don't do it.

-- 
Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven
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