Re: New Member Intro/file wiping & RAID with Full Disk Encryption questions

[David Mitchel <linux-crypto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, October 30, 2008 05:55:14 am Passive PROFITS wrote:
> 1.  securely delete/wipe/scrub files
> 2.  securely wipe free disk space
> 3.  securely wipe a whole partition and/or disk.

The only way to 100% get rid of data on magnetic media is with a 10lb sledge 
hammer and trips to dumpsters in different cities, being sure you were not 
followed of course.

Other than that, I would recommend DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke).
http://www.dban.org/

Applications like http://wipe.sourceforge.net/ or any other program that runs 
off the same hard drive it's working on (wiping free disk space, etc) are 
better than nothing at all I suppose. They might help against simple programs 
like http://www.recuva.com and the like. However, there really aren't much 
help if used on a journaled file system (Which has tricky ways of storing the 
data, to boost performance). Which _pretty much_ includes everything but ext2 
and FAT.

Albeit, here are a couple of examples for *nix besides wipe
http://www.jetico.com/bcwipe_unix.htm
Do a little googling and you'll find ubuntu install instructions 

Also, Kgpg (GPG front end for KDE) has a wiping feature and "Shredder" for 
your desktop.

> I now have got my hard drives turned to full disk encryption which is,
> like, GREAT!  I use the installer routines to get this done.  I was unable
> (entirely, after spending a week or so trying) to get the servers RAID1
> with full disk encryption; essentially faced with a choice of either RAID1
> *or* full disk encryption.  

You might have a look at FreeNAS, it's VERY easy to setup full disk encryption 
in all sorts of RAID configurations. I HIGHLY recommend it for beginners! 
Literally two clicks, after you've installed it of course.

-- 
David Mitchel
OpenPGP key: http://tinyurl.com/85630E3D
Fingerprint: 199E 3E07 5FC4 668C 5E7A F11E 5CC2 441B 8563 0E3D

We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth... For my part, I am 
willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it.
-Patrick Henry

History is always repeating itself, but each time the price goes up. 
-(anonymous)

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number.
But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit!
We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them
economical numbers.". . . or better yet, government numbers!
-Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988)

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