Martijn van Brummelen wrote:
> Hi Trent,
> On 2019-10-24 06:46, Trent W. Buck wrote:
> > Package: nwipe
> > Version: 0.26-1
> > Severity: wishlist
> >
> > As I understand it:
> >
> > 1. the default nwipe method is DoD Short.
> >
> > 2. the DoD Short method is specifically designed for the physical
> > structure of MFM drives, and
> > doesn't really work on other kinds of drives.
> >
> > 3. they stopped making MFM drives in, like, 1990.
> >
> > 4. the PRNG method doesn't care about the physical structure of your
> > drives, so unless you work for the US government, you should just
> > always use PRNG.
> >
> > If all of those things are true,
> > can we please change the nwipe default method to PRNG?
> >
>
> Sounds like a good idea for one of the next releases. Thanks!
>
> > The idea is to protect people who just run nwipe and
> > ASSUME the defaults are reasonably sensible.
Please note that I'm not 100% certain about my bullet points above.
Ideally someone who specializes in data forensics should weigh in. :-)
>From the quick investigation I did today, Best Current Practice seems to be:
if you never need to use the drive again:
if you can afford it:
grind the drive to a fine powder using a "grinder"
else:
hit it, hard, several times, with a hammer
else:
if the drive supports "ATA Secure Erase" extension:
use ATA Secure Erase (FIXME: HOW?)
else:
use nwipe --method=prng
Also worth mention: if you use full disk encryption (e.g. LUKS),
destroying the decrypt keys MIGHT be sufficient for your needs
(some metadata remains forensic-able).
I believe this is how "factory reset" works on smartphones.
