Robert, It's my understanding that there has been no documented case of data recovered from a hard disk that has been erased by completely overwriting the contents 3 or more times with your choice of 0s, 1s, alternating bits, random bits, or whatever, outside of a lab environment using magnetic electron microscopy. Is that no longer true? I had thought that one didn't need a particularly good RNG for it, since anything will do. Or, is that just what the NSA *wants* me to think?
~~James _____________________ http://www.turtlezero.com On 7/22/07, Robert Howard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How about deleting confidential data from hard disks! > > The solution today is to overwrite it many times with random data. > > But modern mathematics and technology makes it possible to recover the much > of the original text given the original random sequence used to delete the > data. Given a long sequence of deleted white space (or zeros on the disk), > then it becomes possible to recover the original pseudo-random sequence (for > example, one based on linear congruence) – even if a many passes are > performed. > > With a true random number generator, only one pass is needed. > > I'm sure hardware random number generators based on quantum effects, which > have been around for decades, would be used instead of hitting a web site, > which compromises the who shebang. > > > > Robert Howard > > Phoenix, Arizona ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
