Re: Best way to wipe data with AIX ?
From: BRUCE HARVEY (btharvey_at_MANDTBANK.COM)
Date: 09/14/05
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Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 10:35:32 -0400 To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Hmm ... I suggest repeating Galileo's experiments with gravity from a
local university ivory tower ... similar to the tower in Pisa? A sledge
hammer is, of course, directed and can be manipulated to provide only a
glancing blow. Gravity with concrete on the receiving end (assuming the
concrete is set and the height is sufficient) can not be easily
avoided.
But I agree -- if the organization with little funding is to be held to
highest evaluation, then the program to perform this wiping should be
provided.
Bruce
>>> rmiller@SMUD.ORG 09/14/05 9:58 AM >>>
I always find it amusing (or sad...) when the places that have the
least
amount of funding (university computing services, for instance) are
required to do tasks the most expensive and time-consuming way
possible
(getting 12 bids and evaluating each on a point system, wiping drives
at
a milspec level...). I say use a sledgehammer and call it good ;P
All hail bureauracracy...
--rm
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM AIX Discussion List [mailto:aix-l@Princeton.EDU]On Behalf Of
Roger Deschner
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2005 12:27 AM
To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: Best way to wipe data with AIX ?
I've been following this, hoping for a good idea. I'm facing the same
problem, and our auditors say none of that is acceptable. Allocating a
big filesystem and running dd to write
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" 10 zillion times on it will not
do. Formatting with diag -> format is inadequate. Not even doing it
many
times. They want me to REALLY wipe the data out, using an
Officially(tm)
Certified(tm) Government Standard Compliant Disk-Wipe(tm) program,
witnessed by two different people, each of whom must sign a printed
log
of the session. Only then will the auditors permit us to return a disk
which has ever contained either personal or University-Owned data to
any
vendor.
The only alternative they give us is to physically destroy the drives,
and they give us alternatives for that ranging from the bizarre to the
almost fun. Think David Letterman tricks with hydraulic punch presses.
We could also degauss the drives, but a magnetic field that would be
strong enough to satisfy their data destruction requirements, would
also
destroy the drive electronics, making them worthless to the vendor we
will be sending them back to.
Although they have basically invalidated every warranty and service
contract on disk subsystems we have, there is no arguing with
auditors.
It's the law in Illinois, and we're a state agency. You do what they
say, even though it is extremely time consuming. We are evaluating if,
considering the personnel cost of wiping, it is more cost advantageous
to simply destroy the drives.
Disk-wipe programs exist in the Windows environment. (e.g. Stellar
Wipe,
Active@ Eraser) One Unix program I've found is the free Gnu-licensed
wipe program, at http://wipe.sourceforge.net. Be sure to read the
detailed academic paper that explains why all those other methods,
from
writing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" until the disk is full,
to
reformatting, are all inadequate, at
http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html
However, even the government says that the only sure way to destroy
data
on magnetic media is to physically destroy the media.
Roger Deschner University of Illinois at Chicago
rogerd@uic.edu
On Wed, 14 Sep 2005, Jim McD wrote:
>Hi
>
>Always overwrite the entire disk, best do it several times.
>
>Using the deleting and formatting are just small alterations to the
disk.
>Data is still left on the disk and still accessible using non
traditional
>methods
>
>Regards Jim
>
- Previous message: Antonio Varricchio: "Re: Best way to wipe data with AIX ?"
- Maybe in reply to: Michael H. Martel: "Best way to wipe data with AIX ?"
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