Hi Leonard,
Way back in the '80s, I worked for a national Canadian Bank.
There was a project created to dispose of the 3420 reels (after they had
been copied to 3480 cartridges).
One of the committee members found out (between meetings) that the CIA
had a machine which could read up to 15 levels of degaussed data.
This meant that the only option was to physically destroy the tapes.
The solutions being discussed were to cut the tapes such that after
cutting 2 thinner circles would result or to cut the tapes such that 2
semicircular pieces would result.
The committee went with option 1, because they reasoned that for option
2, it would be easier to join the strips of tape and place it on a new
reel than to join 2 strips of 2400 feet of tape.
A contractor was hired to do this. He was give an office and a saw ...
it took him 3 months to complete the task.
You can't make this stuff up.
Incidentally, the bank had nicknames (a la "what does IBM REALLY stand
for?")
For anyone who is interested in the nicknames, please email me at
dspiegel...@hotmail.com
Regards,
David
On 11/5/2024 18:19, Leonard D Woren wrote:
Dave Wade wrote on 11/3/2024 1:15 AM:
[snip]
It is said that the NSF can recover the data from a disk after a
single wipe, but I am sure no individual can, well not at a cost that
would make it worth while.
I once worked at a shop which got some used 3350s for free, because
the security classification level there (*) was the same or higher
than where the disks were coming from. Otherwise, the disposal process
for those de-commissioned 3350s involved, at a minimum, the following
steps, as I recall hearing:
1. Run a program (ICKDSF-like) which overwrote the data multiple times.
2. Sand the oxide off the disks.
3. Grind up the aluminum platters.
This was dictated by an agency who very likely knew what _they_ could
recover.
(*) This was a shop where "Secret" or "Top Secret" clearances would
not get you in the door.
In the 2400 tape reel days, someone purportedly had a program which
could recover data back to at least gen-2 from an overwritten reel
tape. It may have required special hardware, I just don't remember
that part. It would have been 40-45+ years ago.
/Leonard
"Only the paranoid survive."
"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me."
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