[clug] Hard disk destruction

[Robert Thorsby]

On 01/07/09 11:25:32, Robert Edwards wrote:
> The person you are protecting the data from
> may well be someone in the future who has
> access to all sorts of cool tech that we just
> don't know about yet. They may look at our
> Scanning Electron Microscopes and our 2048-bit
> public keys and just laugh at how primitive
> we are.
> 
> Melting the platters in a forge may be the best
> way to ensure data destruction - but we don't
> know that either (yet). There may also be all
> sorts of other traces of the data around (backup
> tapes etc.) that also need to be destroyed.

Bob, I think you may be opening up the debate too wide. :-)

Your argument about future technology (and current TV forensic science) 
is IMHO right on the mark. However, you are going too far by 
introducing the wider topic of "How do we safeguard our data."

I think the point at issue is "How do I prevent data recovery ``from 
the piece of media I have in my hands''?"

Whilst I agree totally with your implication that all the thermite in 
the world will not prevent data recovery from the laptop left on the 
train, the matter of scientific recovery/prevention really should be 
confined to [prevention of] recovery from the disc I am now going to 
fry.

BTW, will all this discussion of destructive devices deliver us into 
the hands of ASIO? :-)

Cheers,
Robert Thorsby
First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure.
		-- Mark Twain