I don't know much about this, but yesterday I read in one of the later chapters of Bruce Schneier's book, "Secrets and Lies," (link to amazon follows) that over-writing data on a disk does *not* completely obliterate it, it just makes it a lot more difficult to recover with each over-write. I believe he said just how many re-writes were still recoverable was a secret one of our governmental organizations wasn't about to give up. I'll look at my book later when I have it in my hands and see if I can't find part and post a pointer to *his* reference.
-carol http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/- /0471253111/qid=1035924654/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/104-4454644-5987143? v=glance&n=507846 > Greetings Folks, > > I had an interesting conversation today with someone from FAST > (Federation > Against Software Theft) They pretend not to be a snitch wing of the BSA. > Anyway, to get to the point, the guy that came to see me said that their > forensics guys could read data off a hard drive that had been written > over > up to thirty times. I find this very hard to believe and told him I > thought > he was mistaken but the guy was adamant that it could be done. My > question > is, does anyone have any views on this, or, can anyone point me to a > source > of information where I can get the facts on exactly how much data can be > retrieved off a hard drive and under what conditions etc etc. > > Thanks > > Dave Adams > > > > This message (and any associated files) is intended only for the > use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may > contain information that is confidential, subject to copyright or > constitutes a trade secret. If you are not the intended recipient > you are hereby notified that any dissemination, copying or > distribution of this message, or files associated with this message, > is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, > please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting > it from your computer. Messages sent to and from > John Crowley (Maidstone) Ltd may be monitored. > > Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error- free > as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive > late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, we do not accept > responsibility for any errors or omissions that are present in this > message, or any attachment, that have arisen as a result of e-mail > transmission. If verification is required, please request a hard-copy > version. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author > and do not necessarily represent those of John Crowley (Maidstone) Ltd. > > -- Real people for the virtual world. http://www.elirion.net
