2.8 - Data Destruction Flashcards

1
Q

Physical destruction

A
  • Shredder
    – Heavy machinery - complete destruction
  • Drill / Hammer
    – Quick and easy - Platters, all the way through
  • Electromagnetic (degaussing)
    – Remove the magnetic field
    – Destroys the drive data and the electronics
  • Incineration - Fire hot.
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2
Q

Certificate of destruction

A
  • Destruction is often done by a 3rd party
    – How many drills and degaussers do you have?
  • Need confirmation that your data is destroyed
    – Service should include a certificate
  • A paper trail of broken data
    – You know exactly what happened
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3
Q

Disk formatting

A
  • Low-level formatting
    – Provided at the factory
    – Not recommended for the user
  • Standard formatting / Quick format
    – Sets up the file system, installs a boot sector
    – Clears the master file table but not the data
    – Can be recovered with the right software
  • Standard formatting / Regular format
    – Overwrites every sector with zeros
    – Default for Windows Vista and later
    – Can’t recover the data
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4
Q

Erasing data

A
  • File level overwriting
    – Sdelete – Windows Sysinternals
    – Remaining files are still available
  • Whole drive wipe secure data removal
    – DBAN - Darik’s Boot and Nuke
    – Removes all data on the drive
    – Use the drive again
  • Physical drive destruction
    – One-off or industrial removal and destroy
    – Drive is no longer usable
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5
Q

Hard drive security

A
  • 2019 study from Blancco and Ontrack
    – 159 storage drives from eBay
    – 42% of the used drives contain sensitive data
  • Different data types
    – 66 drives had data, 25 drives with PII
  • Varied data sources
    – Travel company email archive
    – Freight company shipping details
    – University student papers
    – Audio, video, and other personal files
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