[ale] destroy old drives

Jim Kinney jim.kinney at gmail.com
Thu Apr 11 15:06:04 EDT 2019


I like to write clear text red herring files onto a LUKS encrypted
drive to be disposed of. So delete the LUKS header, overwrite it with
/dev/random. Reformat the drive as fat32 then add:
Files named "bank_codes" and then filled with random generated account
numbers and passwords.Files named "my passwords" and filled with random
usernames, accounts, and passwords"Files named "my new access list"
filled with real usernames gleaned from facebook, google, etc. but
random passwords
This works real well on a fresh install win10 with no password on the
default user account. Keeps the schmucks busy testing :-)
On Thu, 2019-04-11 at 09:51 -0400, DJ-Pfulio via Ale wrote:
> Or just use strong encryption on the data to begin with (non-trivial
> passphrasesor better, keys to unlock), then remove the headers.
> And if you like, run ddrescue --force /dev/urandom /dev/sdZZZZZZZZZ
> for a fewhours or until it is full.
> Using LUKS means never worrying about sending drives in for warranty
> replacement.
> But shooting them is fun too.
> If you are a large enterprise or DoD, what we think doesn't matter.
> They willhave policies.
> For a medium-small biz or home outside DoD entanglements, the above
> works betterthan what 99.9999% of your competition is doing.
> 
> On 4/10/19 8:30 PM, Steve Litt via Ale wrote:
> > I think opinions vary on the effectiveness of DBAN, but nobody
> > I'veever met disputed that once all platters are reduced to pieces
> > no morethan 1 inch square, the cost of recovery precludes anyone
> > but a stateactor who has prioritized the daylights out of your
> > data. To easilybe even more cautious, you could easily dispose of
> > platter shards indifferent places and different time periods.
> > DBAN and its category brethren strike me as things that
> > workwonderfully if used correctly, but I make mistakes. And what if
> > thedrive was intermittent when DBANized?
> > And what if you accidentally DBANize the wrong drive?
> > And then there's this: What's the advantage of DBAN over a hammer?
> > SteveT
> > 
> > 
> > On Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:18:55 -0400Pete Hardie <
> > pete.hardie at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > But for working drives, does that substantially differ from
> > > runningDBAN?
> > > Non-working drives do require a hammer
> > > On Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 15:05 Steve Litt via Ale <ale at ale.org>
> > > wrote:
> > > > As a corollary, how much would it damage your life if
> > > > somebodyrecovered your username, password, and positions for
> > > > your investmentfirm?
> > > > Fifteen minutes of hammering and you haven't a care in the
> > > > world.
> > > > SteveT
> > > > 
> > > > On Sun, 31 Mar 2019 15:27:35 -0400Pete Hardie via Ale <
> > > > ale at ale.org> wrote: 
> > > > > How much effort do you expect the men in black to expend
> > > > > torecover the data on them?
> > > > > On Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 14:48 Geoffrey Myers via Ale <
> > > > > ale at ale.org>wrote: 
> > > > > > So, I’m cleaning up the basement.  Got a stack of old
> > > > > > driversI’m working to erase.  Many of which are, not
> > > > > > surprisinglyinaccessible.  Google says simply remove the
> > > > > > platters and hammerthem into shards.
> > > > > > Thoughts?
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-- 
James P. Kinney III

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain

http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/

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