WEBVTT - How to Permanently Delete Files 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.880 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.680 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polett and 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.040 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.480 Sitting across from me as always as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:28.120 I don't know if you've got the whole picture, but 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:33.480 he's not exactly working at all Thrusters. We still haven't 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.160 started receiving mail about where I get these quotes from, 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.280 so I'm curious to hear once those started coming in. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.720 Actually I'm sure I'll be buried under an avalanche. But 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:50.040 that leads me to a little actual listener mail. This 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.879 mail comes from Griffin. So, first of all, Griffin, you 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:57.200 have a really cool name, and here is the mail. Hi, 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.200 I just wanted to send you a note about deleting 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.560 files on a computer. Your recent data recovery podcasts correctly 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.640 mentioned that when you delete a file or empty the 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.800 trash on your computer, it really just deletes the pointers 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.160 and the data is still there. Sometimes. However, both Mac 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:15.160 os ten and Windows XP have newer and newer versions 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.880 have easy to use secure erase features. If you turn 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.679 these on or run a secure a race free space feature, 0:01:21.880 --> 0:01:26.160 it will actually overwrite the deleted files space with zeros. 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:30.080 Your os can't find it anymore no matter what. Even so, 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.200 the U. S. Department of Defense prescribes that this be 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.520 done seven times before it is considered safe, and even 0:01:35.560 --> 0:01:38.560 then there are higher specifications for safe deleting without destroying 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.040 the physical media. There are also software available that can 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.160 cause physical damage to a drive and its platters using 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.040 things like vibrations caused by repeated looping instructions. Software can 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.840 make a drive head shatter or heat up the drive platter. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.720 Fun huh. Anyway, just wanted to share some additional knowledge 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.440 with you. Hope your summer is as great as mine. Well, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:57.960 thanks a lot, Griffin. We're actually going to do a 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.360 podcast about permanently delete being files because we had several 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:03.360 people ask us about that after we did our data 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.440 recovery podcast and you've kind of covered some of the basics. Uh. Yes, 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.440 when you delete a file, what you're really doing is 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.600 deleting a pointer to that data, right, Because if you 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.400 just drag a file to your recycled band or trash 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.200 can and tell it to delete it. It, you know, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.880 gets it off of your hard drive, and and basically 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.280 when it removes the pointers, it's making that space available 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.680 to be written over again. But typically if if all 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.200 you're doing is just deleting it under the normal circumstances, Um, 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.720 I will explain why I say that. In a moment. Um, 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:41.800 all you're doing is saying, yes, you can go ahead 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.320 and take these two megabytes or whatever, and next time 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.839 you need space, feel free to go ahead and write 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:49.640 over this, because I don't need that anymore. But it 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:54.880 does not actually remove the file completely from your hard drive. Right. So, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.359 in other words, if you delete something, then it may 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:02.760 be possible to retrieve it using data retrieval software. Delete 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:05.920 software essentially is what it's usually referred to as, which 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.440 is really useful. If you go, oh, no, I can't 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.440 believe I just deleted that. Yeah, I can't believe it. 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.520 Sometime my term paper. I mean I've accidently deleted articles. 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.760 I've done that. Yes, I've accidentally deleted articles when I 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.959 got angry. Um no, that's a joke. Please don't send 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:25.000 anyone to me. Uh the Yeah, So, if you delete 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.560 something by accident, there are ways to retrieve it, assuming 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:32.320 you haven't, you know, downloaded new information and had that 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.800 that those old files overwritten by your computer. Uh. And 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.280 if you remember our podcast about hard drives and how 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.840 hard drives save information to the physical media, you'll remember 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.680 they don't necessarily do it sequentially. Actually, platter based ones 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:49.440 don't do it sequentially at all, at least not in 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.800 most file systems. Right. Yeah, we did mention that older 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.560 DOS versions do, like the ones that were used by NASA, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.000 do save it sequentially. But in your average hard drive system, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.480 your data is being saved willingly in a way that 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.800 kind of sort of makes sense, but it's not necessarily sequential. 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.640 So when you over when you're saving you data, there's 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.600 no guarantee that you're actually overwriting old files. You may 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:18.159 be saving that too unoccupied space on your hard drive. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.080 So uh, it may even be that something that you 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:25.560 deleted months ago is still sitting on your computer. That's true, 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.960 And this is important because whereas a few weeks ago 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.320 we were talking about how you can save files that 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.200 have been seemingly deleted from your computer, let's say you 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.760 actually want to make sure that something is gone for good. 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:45.159 For example, you're selling your computer to someone else, or 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.720 or donating it to to a charity, for example, for 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.800 an older machine, and you think, wow, you know all 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.599 those tax files I had on here, I'll just lead them. Well, 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.960 if you just to lead them, they're not gonna be 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.640 really gone. And it is possible that someone who is 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.280 enterprising enough can go in and get very sensitive information 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.839 such as here in the United States, your social security 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.680 number or something else that could be used to steal 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.000 your identity. So let's say that let's say that you're 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.680 the I T head of a government office. Now, the 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.160 information that's on the computers in your department may be 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.440 extremely sensitive. In fact, some may be uh related to 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.359 to national security. And so it's of utmost importance that 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.160 you make sure that that data is completely destroyed when 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.960 you are going to get rid of an old machine. Um. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.760 And so it becomes really important to know what's the 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:45.320 process for deleting these files. Uh. So you wanna you 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.799 want to get rid of something, you want to overwrite 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:51.599 that data. You don't want to just um, just assume 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.440 that when you delete something that's gone, how do you 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:59.840 overwrite a file a specific file, Well, it depends on 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:03.640 the computer system that you're using. This is true. UM, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.960 you know that what we were talking about earlier. Yes, 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.640 the U for example, the Macintosh operating system with which 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.280 I'm probably a little bit more familiar than Windows UM, 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.320 although I've used Windows for many years now. UM actually 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.680 has an option UM in the in the file menu 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.520 when you're looking at the at the trash to you 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.240 have the option of a racing or emptying your trash 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.000 or secure empty trash, which is basically not only does 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:33.400 it UM delete the files on those sectors on the 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.320 hard drive, but it also overwrites them with ones and 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:42.120 zeros multiple times in order to you know, obliterate those files. 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:46.920 So it's it's going ahead and writing information, uh, you know, 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:50.919 basically gibberish information to those sectors in an attempt to 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.599 completely get rid of it. You can, and you can, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.120 as we were mentioning before, to do that in other 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:00.400 operating systems. Yeah, in Linux, if you're if you're using Lenox, 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:05.800 most distroys of Lenox have a shred command, and so 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.200 your shred command shredding is it's essentially what it sounds 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:12.240 like when you're you're physically shredding a document. The ideas 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.640 that it's shredding the digital version. And again what it 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.840 does is it it not only deletes the information from 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.160 your hard drive, but overwrites it for you. And you 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.160 can even adjust the number of times it it passes 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.400 that information and overwrites it using various command line functions, 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.640 so you could just overwrite at once, or you could 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.520 set that overwrite number to a much higher number like 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.760 seven or seven times. Is the Department of Defenses UH 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.960 basic rule of thumb which Griffin mentioned. Um, there's also 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:50.440 another approach called the Gutman method, Yes, which Gutman is UH. 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:55.560 It's well, it's it's named after a technology expert who 0:07:56.160 --> 0:08:00.560 came up with thirty five different ways to overwrite UH data. 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:05.880 Since then, it's his method has been kind of misinterpreted 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.680 to mean that you need to overwrite data thirty five 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.600 times to really obliterate it. That's kind of a misconception. 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:14.720 That's not really what Gutman was saying, And in fact, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.400 Gutman u in Peter Gutman, I should say, it was 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:22.520 a paper called Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.560 Solid state Memory that was the thing that kind of 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.000 gave birth to this whole thirty five passes to truly 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.640 erase the data so that you don't have to worry 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.920 about data recovery specialists getting hold of it. Um that 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.040 he He later wrote an addendum to that, an epilogue 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:44.280 to the paper, which essentially said that two passes of 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:49.280 random data should be enough to obliterate information. Uh. Some 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.920 people suggest more because of the fear that future data 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.920 recovery strategies will be able to get past that. There's 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.680 also the possibility some people think that there may be 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:04.280 a stability that because because it's a magnetic storage um 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:10.160 uh media the classic hard drives at any rate, it's 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:17.040 possible that empty sectors could have their bits aligned magnetically 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.880 with other sectors. So even if you've overwritten one thing, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.040 there may be a trace ghost element of that old 0:09:24.160 --> 0:09:28.880 data on an empty sector, which theoretically you could detect 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:34.320 if you had an electron telescope. Yeah that that kind 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:39.280 of detection requires a certain amount of funding and expertise 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:44.560 and patients. Um. The average consumer does probably does not 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.960 need to worry about someone going after his or her 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:50.520 computer with an electron microscope. It's just not gonna happen. 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:54.280 And uh And some experts will tell you now, among 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:59.080 them Craig Wright Dave Kleiman and Shyam Sundar that overwriting 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.560 hard drive really you only need to do it once 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.480 and that is enough because it will obliterate whatever the 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.000 file was and and it won't. And while people have 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.440 said that there are data recovery ways of getting past that, 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:19.079 they say that the way that we store information magnetically, Now, uh, 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.679 that's not really the case. That this whole seven pass 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.160 this thing and thirty five pass this thing. These are 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.240 all based on misconceptions and are really overkill. That being said, 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.920 it really doesn't hurt you to over to overwrite multiple times. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.080 Another another method that people, some people have been using, 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.360 and I don't know if you encountered this in your 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.560 research or not, Jonathan, encrypted e racing. Yes, actually I 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.480 saw a cool one called secure delete. This was a 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:50.160 program which actually encrypts your file before you delete it 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.720 and overwrite it, so that should someone have the ability 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.720 to recover that data, they're going to recover an encrypted file. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:01.320 And encryption, if you are not familiar, basically is a 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.120 way of encoding the file. UM. If they wanted to 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:07.960 try to open it, they would be asked for a 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.480 pass key UM and it could be something I mean 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.360 really obnoxious or I don't even know if do you 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.760 know if secure delete um actually tells the user what 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:22.839 the code is, so it's encrypted with a key that 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.559 no one knows. Yeah, it's like it's like you've been 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.240 given a coded message but no key to to decode it. 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.360 So that's I mean, that's the whole point. That's what 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:33.680 makes it secure is if it if it did somehow 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.720 provide you that key, then you would be able to 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.000 decode the message and get back to the original file structure. 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:44.200 But by keeping the key a secret, then it's out 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.160 of an extra level of security. Now, so so you 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:51.800 would have to be able to one retrieve the overwritten file, 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.840 which is then encrypted, and then to break the encryption 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.600 to get to the original file, which is I mean 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:03.160 that's this is like like major secret service kind of 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:08.320 stuff that that confounds really really smart people as opposed 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.960 to people like me. I'm just I'm just smart. I'm 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.600 not really really smart because I use terms like really 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:22.400 really smart. Um. All right, then, well, um, but those 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.040 are for individual files. Should we talk about ways to 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.400 uh if you want to just go ahead and wipe 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.880 the entire drive clean? Yeah, because if this is a 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.400 good using these these methods are are good for Oh 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:36.600 and yeah, we didn't really mention it, but yeah, Windows 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.040 has it has their own They have their own their 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:41.080 own programs as well, and some of those are like 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.280 Griffins that are incorporated into the OS. But they are 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.160 also products that you can purchase that will allow you 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.000 to do this kind of thing, like BC wipe allows 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.360 you to delete an overwrite individual files. Blanco file shredder 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.359 lets you do that. It also lets you do folders, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:58.880 so you don't have to do it file by file. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.520 You can do an entire folder you want to um 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:04.240 and then there are there are a few others. There's 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.440 a race your hard Drive dot com which uses the 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:12.760 d D method of racing doing seven passes. Department of Defense. Yes, 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.520 thank you, Department of Defense. I'm we're on really good terms, 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:20.640 so I just call him d D sometimes Dodd anyway. 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.360 So yeah, there are also solutions for PCs. Now, if 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.280 you don't if what you want to do is wipe 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.880 the entire drive, because what you're doing is like what 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:33.959 was saying, you want to get rid of your computer 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.080 or perhaps you want to repurpose it or whatever, and 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.559 you don't want whatever was on that computer to ever 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.400 fall into someone else's hands. Um, yeah, you can, you can. Actually, 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.839 there's several different methods of wiping everything off your hard 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.400 drive and overwriting it so that, um, so that nothing remains. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:56.480 And some of those are again, uh, commercial products like 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.600 killed disk is one. You can purchase killed disk and 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.240 what it'll will do is it'll it'll erase and overwrite 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.240 the dear hard drive, um multiple times, I think. And 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.480 there are other products that do the same sort of thing. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.040 This is again what what the Department of Defense does 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:18.120 if they're ever going to get rid of a machine. Now. Um, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.360 when we were talking earlier about Griffin's email about secure 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:26.440 a race, that actually is uh not really platform specific. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:30.040 That's actually something that the hard drive manufacturers have been 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.440 including in the firmware for the drives for a while now. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.600 And basically that means that there is some some information 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.200 in the in the hard drive itself that if you 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.520 know how to tap into that information, the drive will 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:49.880 go ahead and delete everything on there securely. Um. The 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.520 trick is they don't want to make that something that 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.200 you can do easily by accident. Yeah, obviously that would 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.640 be a bad thing. And this is a good time 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.960 to actually mention that if you do ever need to 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:05.200 wipe your hard drive um again, make a backup of 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.600 your drive first. Uh. This kind of sounds like it's 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:10.960 ridiculous and that you don't want to do that. But 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:14.200 let's say that you've deleted the stuff that you don't 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.520 want on your drive at all, um, and whether or 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.200 not that those deletions have been overwritten or whatever, that 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.920 that's kind of beside the point. If you if you 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:24.920 make a backup of your hard drive, and then you 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:29.280 are manually choosing which which bits of information, which files 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.040 and programs you want to bring back onto your new 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.440 device or either you're repurposed computer perhaps um, then you 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.440 can avoid pulling over the stuff that you didn't want 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:43.400 on there in the first place. But making a backup 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:46.920 is important because once you wipe that, it wipes. Wiping 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:51.200 a hard drive wipes everything. It's not just your documents 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.920 or your files, it's also all your programs and even 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:58.280 your operating system. So you'll in order to make your 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:02.000 computer useful again, you will have to load in either 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.400 copies of your old OS or a new OS. If 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.400 you want to change your machines purpose, if you want 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.360 to switch from a PC to a Linux based machine 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.760 for example. UM So, yeah, you gotta keep that in 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.200 mind too, that when you do these wipes, it's going 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.640 to wipe everything, which is a good thing, as it 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.720 turns out, if you want to really erase all traces 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.160 of you know whatever, like again, if it's financial records 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:31.560 or uh, corporate intellectual property, that kind of stuff, it's 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:37.280 necessary to do that. Yes, secure race going back to 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.520 that now with the work of Dr Gordon Hughes and 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.960 a group called the Center from Magnetic Recording Research at 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.800 the University of California at San Diego and UM actually 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.440 secure race is uh so thorough that the National Security 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:58.920 Agency and National Institute for Standards and Testing are behind 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.480 using secure or a a race. Unfortunately, according to UM an 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.560 article that I read by Robin Harris at ZD net, 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.879 uh the n s A stopped supporting Dr hughes Is research. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.639 But you can still use um the secure race functionality 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.159 of your machine. Now, if you're a conspiracy theorist, you say, hey, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:20.880 they're supporting this because it doesn't work and they want 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.280 to be able to get to my data. I'm not 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:25.560 a conspiracy theorist, No, of course, I don't know how 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:27.399 you would have thought of that otherwise, But I just 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.760 thought it was funny. I thought that heaving off the 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.359 email like of course, that they're recommending you use this 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.639 because that way they can they know the secret and 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.720 they can get your data. First of all, they're way 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:40.840 too many of us out there with computers. They can't 0:17:40.880 --> 0:17:43.800 be after all of us. It's just too time consuming. 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:45.800 I mean, they don't even have the money or the 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:50.760 man power to do that. So we just discount that immediately. Jonathan, Well, yeah, yeah, 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.760 I'm sorry to use some critical thinking. It's I know 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:59.360 it's so irritating. Um um, go ahead, I apologize. No, No No, 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.280 we were us starting at the same time. If you 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.840 want to wipe your entire drive clean for whatever reason, uh, 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.159 you can't really be logged into your machine when you 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:11.800 do it. You're gonna have to boot off of a CD. 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:16.440 There's just no way around it, because well, yeah, you've 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.600 got to boot off some kind of external drive source 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.920 because if you are running your own computer at the time, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.560 it's gonna go put wait, I can't delete this because 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:29.720 it's running right now. So you're gonna have to to 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:34.160 to use some other form of disk and uh log 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:36.159 into your machine, or you know, start your machine so 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.159 that runs off the CD or the flash drive or 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.560 an external driver. However you're doing it, a secondary drive 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.760 in the machine probably would work, um if you do 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.440 it right. And uh, that way you can actually run 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.080 some of the utilities that we've been talking about, UM, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.360 either a block or racing program or secure a race 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.800 or something else. UM. And that way you can actually 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.400 you know, go ahead and write over those files, all right, Chris. Yes, 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.800 Let's say that you're super secret agent and you're deep 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.639 undercover and your cover has been blown and you know 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.680 that they're after you, and you know that your computer 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.360 is going to be seized. Odd. Sorry, I won't live 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:18.200 to see tomorrow. Right, Okay, see, great agent man, they've 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.600 given you a number and taken away your name. So 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:24.880 number seven, you've you're deep undercover and they are out 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.840 to get you. Number seven, number one is on your case. 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.680 And so you want to get rid of all your data. 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.720 You've overwritten your hard drive, but you want to take 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:40.920 that one extra step. What can you do to absolutely 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:43.560 guarantee there is no way they're going to get any 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.959 data off that computer? Are you serious? I'm serious? Like 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.520 you have overwritten it and so you've done everything electronically 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:53.879 that you can do to get rid of the data, 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:56.600 which is that's the next step, and that's important. That's 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.119 a good first step. Yeah, if you're absolutely in, if 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:01.919 you're pretty sure that nobody's going to get hold of 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:06.440 this drive and try to pull the data from it, Uh, 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.600 then you can use these electronic methods. But if you 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.239 really really want to do this, if I'm trying to 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.639 protect what's left of my what the remaining shreds of 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:19.280 my secret agent work, um, I am going to remove 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:23.280 keeping with the secret agent motif here, I'm going to 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:25.800 remove the drive from the computer and shoot it with 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.880 my Walter Walter PPK. Okay, so you're so you're I'm 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.720 a secret agent, you're now a British secret agent. You 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.040 know you didn't pick number seven and I had to 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.200 fix my Walter. Okay, but you don't really need to 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:41.960 shoot it. You're not gonna use your baretta. You can 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.800 pull that. You can pull the hard you can pull 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:49.800 the drive apart and take the platters and drill holes 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:54.440 in the platters or scratch them up with something scratchy, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.080 or use an industrial shredder that or work. There are 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:01.400 actual industrial shudders out there. Does line specifically to destroy 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:06.160 media like DVDs, CDs and hard drive platters. Yes, and 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:07.960 so all the stuff that we were telling you not 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.359 to do, and the hard drive podcast dot data with 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:14.639 every podcast. You can do that all you want. If 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:16.719 you're trying to drop it, smash it, step on it, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:19.080 you know, grind it up. So the idea, Yeah, if 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.000 you grind it up, you've pretty much guaranteed that there's 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.200 not gonna be any no one's gonna get any debt 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:26.480 off that thing. Suppose of it in one trash, can't 0:21:26.480 --> 0:21:28.959 part of it in one trash, can go downtown and 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.560 get rid of the rest of it. Your credit cards 0:21:31.680 --> 0:21:34.560 and uh, you know all those pictures of all those 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:36.639 those film fatals that you met up with a long 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:41.280 while on your undercover spy Adventures on our spy Facebook profile. Yeah, 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.680 I can't even say their names because they're way too suggestive. Okay, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:47.040 then well, yeah, you look at the James Bond names 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.119 of the women, and there are terrible, terrible shame on you, 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.480 James Bond, shame on you, um at any rate. Yes, yeah, 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.119 that is the ultimate step is if if in fact 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:03.959 you need to destroy the physical media because of some reason, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.880 you know that there is some someone's out to get 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.160 your data and you just want to make sure it's gone. Yeah, first, 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:16.040 electronically override everything. Always do that first. Then you can 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:18.000 look at your various ways of destroying it. And I've 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:20.800 seen lots of different ones, like I like we mentioned before, 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:23.040 I saw one that was an industrial sized drill press 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.680 that would drill an enormous hole through an entire hard 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:31.479 drive box. Or you can like disassemble the box, take 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:33.560 the platters out and destroy them. Or if it's if 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.200 it's a solid state, then you just take a hammer 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:39.680 to it, just just smash it into tiny little pieces. 0:22:39.760 --> 0:22:42.520 It's good to be a gangster. Yeah, I'm sorry that 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:45.760 I heard it was hard to be a gangster, um, 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.679 but yeah, it's um. It's something that you're you you 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:51.399 can actually do physically to to destroy the drive. And 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.200 as we were talking about again, you know, they recovered 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.920 a hard drive, They recovered information from a hard drive 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.600 that had been recovered after the Space Shuttle crash. So 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.840 you know, anything that you can do to eliminate this 0:23:04.960 --> 0:23:07.800 data from the drive, you want to do and that 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.960 oh we know what we didn't touch on something in betweens. 0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:15.400 Oh yeah, um, you know degaussing, and this is a tech. 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.080 This is has to do with a famous German mathematician 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.680 named Carl Friedrich gauss Um. He did a lot of 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:25.679