Sunder[SMTP:sunder@sunder.net] writes [..] Yeah, yeah, yeah, lots of hype about storing terabytes and so on, not worried about that at all. The real question now is this: how effective are these nickel whiskers are recovering erased data off existing platters, or more precisely how many times do we need to overwrite a disk now to wipe the data? [...]
Each time a more sensitive detector is discoverd, it's used by disk manufacturers to increase storage density. The tracks get finer, the bits and the magnetic forces they generate smaller. I expect this at least partially cancels out the advantage that a more sensitive detector gives the spy. Of course, some sensitive techniques (SQUIDs, etal) are not economic for casual use. Peter