Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
While its a good program to keep data safe, your computer will still "harbour" data in, Internet downloaded folder memory, Windows SWAP file, Recycle bin, Start menu run history etc etc and unless you wipe and over write theses areas, along with overwriting free disk space all the data deleted or otherwise will be recoverable.
Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
Yes, the computer will still harbour data, but it's just random numbers, unless you have a way of decrypting it = the password. Truecrypt offers overwriting of the remaining free disk space during encryption. And the files you already have will necessarily be overwritten in the encryption process.Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:36 pmWhile its a good program to keep data safe, your computer will still "harbour" data in, Internet downloaded folder memory, Windows SWAP file, Recycle bin, Start menu run history etc etc and unless you wipe and over write theses areas, along with overwriting free disk space all the data deleted or otherwise will be recoverable.
Of course your point is true if someone gets access to the computer while unlocked. Anyway, it should be more than enough for normal people, who doesn't like unwarranted snooping through your personal files.
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
There is also VeraCript. VeraCrypt is a fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt project.
You can find it here: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html
If you use encryption software, carefully remove all the icons of the software, because if they see them, they can get suspicious and ask for the password.
You can find it here: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html
If you use encryption software, carefully remove all the icons of the software, because if they see them, they can get suspicious and ask for the password.
Last edited by Sidewalker on Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
So you are saying that instead of hiding files on your own hard drive you should store them on what is essentially someone else's hard drive....phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 12:52 pm anyone worried would just move everything to the cloud. These days there is no reason to have ANY incriminating files on your hard drive.
Just cause you delete something from your hard dive, its not 100% gone UNLESS; you wipe the whole drive/reformat and than smash the drive so its 100% unusable .
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
Hiding stuff in the cloud is just idiocy, there are many cases where security has been breached..you want to hide stuff, but trust someone you don't know to keep it secure?
iirc, I remember many women storing nude photos in the cloud, and then whining when they were hacked.
Last place you should even think of.
iirc, I remember many women storing nude photos in the cloud, and then whining when they were hacked.
Last place you should even think of.
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:36 pmNo its not just random numbers, it is pictures, text files, urls etc. and as mentioned deleted files are usually easily recovered unless successfully overwritten. Granted data stored in TrueCrypt files are unlikely to be recovered so once the data is encrypted its safe. However if you have downloaded the data from the net all your actions are left on the computer and images are still in the internet cache for example. So even if you have re-stored them in an encrypted file, copies from the cache etc are still likely recoverable. One only has to run Encase to retrieve all that data UNLESS you have sanitized your computer by running something like Evidence Eliminator.username wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:15 pm
Yes, the computer will still harbour data, but it's just random numbers, unless you have a way of decrypting it = the password. Truecrypt offers overwriting of the remaining free disk space during encryption. And the files you already have will necessarily be overwritten in the encryption process.
There are two issues here:
One is protecting your data from possibly being compromised if the computer is stolen for example. Here encrypting ones whole drive with TrueCrypt is the way to go as no one can get into your machine. Alternatively one could partition the drive and have one encrypted for data and the other free for general use. Of course if the computer is stolen your data is safe but someone would have easy access to all you've done, but you may not be too bothered.
Two is protecting ones data and oneself from being compromised if the computer is seized by the authorities. Which seemed to be the case alluded to by Violet. That is the situation that in Thailand having pornography one ones machine is illegal. So the issue here is making sure that ones machine is clear of incriminating data, however it got there and this can only be done by running a machine sanitation program. Once done programs such as encase will return zero results and your machine will be given "a clean bill of health"
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
John Bingham wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:08 pmSo you are saying that instead of hiding files on your own hard drive you should store them on what is essentially someone else's hard drive....phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 12:52 pm anyone worried would just move everything to the cloud. These days there is no reason to have ANY incriminating files on your hard drive.
Just cause you delete something from your hard dive, its not 100% gone UNLESS; you wipe the whole drive/reformat and than smash the drive so its 100% unusable .
The whole point is to make sure there is NOTHING on your hard drive that raises any suspicion. Placing it in the clouds accomplishes that , YET still making those files available to you anywhere
if u open a account with a free email address and encrypt ur files ( there are some cloud services that offer this as well) on a flash drive and upload them at starbucks using a vpn, a two-step authentication and a public computer.
NO one would have any reason to associate the files with you and there is no trace back to you.
you can also go one step further and host ur own cloud server
Good way to also trade info with only 2 people having the url / login/ password
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Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
So it seems we are not discussing the same issue. I was talking about keeping data safely, while you were talking about erasing data safely?Kuroneko wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:36 pmNo its not just random numbers, it is pictures, text files, urls etc. and as mentioned deleted files are usually easily recovered unless successfully overwritten. Granted data stored in TrueCrypt files are unlikely to be recovered so once the data is encrypted its safe. However if you have downloaded the data from the net all your actions are left on the computer and images are still in the internet cache for example. So even if you have re-stored them in an encrypted file, copies from the cache etc are still likely recoverable. One only has to run Encase to retrieve all that data UNLESS you have sanitized your computer by running something like Evidence Eliminator.username wrote: ↑Sat Nov 25, 2017 1:15 pm
Yes, the computer will still harbour data, but it's just random numbers, unless you have a way of decrypting it = the password. Truecrypt offers overwriting of the remaining free disk space during encryption. And the files you already have will necessarily be overwritten in the encryption process.
There are two issues here:
One is protecting your data from possibly being compromised if the computer is stolen for example. Here encrypting ones whole drive with TrueCrypt is the way to go as no one can get into your machine. Alternatively one could partition the drive and have one encrypted for data and the other free for general use. Of course if the computer is stolen your data is safe but someone would have easy access to all you've done, but you may not be too bothered.
Two is protecting ones data and oneself from being compromised if the computer is seized by the authorities. Which seemed to be the case alluded to by Violet. That is the situation that in Thailand having pornography one ones machine is illegal. So the issue here is making sure that ones machine is clear of incriminating data, however it got there and this can only be done by running a machine sanitation program. Once done programs such as encase will return zero results and your machine will be given "a clean bill of health"
As I was only talking about full disk encryption, yes, everything is just random numbers, unless the data is decrypted with the password. Data restore software cannot restore those files, other than in it's encrypted form.
If the system is fully encrypted, all those data and metadata files you are mentioning will also be encrypted. Everything except the boot loader.
So if your computer and data is compromised, they'd need the decryption key or seize the computer while the data is decrypted. If I recall correctly, the Silkroad owner (who was identified by other means, unrelated to this) got his computer snatched by the authorities while he was using it at a café. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to access his data.
If you want to get rid of data, yes, you'd need to erase everything using the methods you mentioned, if you want to keep the data, you need encryption. The safest is of course to erase it, but what good use is no data at all?
Re: Better 'wipe' those hard drives!
Just as a reminder my points were addressing Violets concern which as you may remember was:
and my reply was: Yes
"Your computer is tracking all of your actions and stores the evidence on your hard drive. Anyone else can see where you have been on the Internet and the images, movies you have viewed, even everything you did on your computer would leave trace on your computer, an Internet eraser or internet cleaner tool is an important tool to have on your PC to protect your privacy."
The point is that you keep important data on encrypted drives so it is safe and sanitize your machine so it is "clean" of any compromising data. Remember this thread is about the concern of the illegality of pornography on a computer in Thailand and so the concern is about making sure that your computer does not harbour illegal material. You state:
But I am not suggesting you delete everything to the point of losing all your data! Of course if you are a collector of such material and you want to retain the data you store it in encrypted volumes. But if you are engaging in what is potentially illegal activity you should make sure that you have effectively sanitized your machine. The overall objective is to eliminate compromising material while safely retaining valuable data.
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