In , on 11/12/96
at 05:20 PM, azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear) said:
. Attila said:
.
.> I wonder if anyone told them the data recovery teams can pull
.> multiple layers of data off a disc after it has been stripped?
.I've often wondered how effective disk encryption programs, like DiskCrypt,
.are at hiding data from a Class III adversary (e.g., NSA). These programs
.offer a means of 'cleaning' the data and directory space using randomized
.patterns applied one or more times, but this might be insufficient for
.removing data written slightly off-track by a previous write cycle.
.
I don't have any direct experience with 'serious' error
recovery either; however, over a few years span listening to some
my friends who have not come in from the cold, I received the
very definite reading the key is a differential measurement on flux
and organization which expands the 'hearing' range exponentially
-even if it is multiple destructive formatting.
I written software programs for C2 and B1 clearance, including
primitives which wiped as they went. I used a pattern which
shifted and repeated itself --not too ridiculous on unix if you are
using type 2 read/write primitives. messy? yes, in its own simple
way.
The software was certified by multiple fairly sensitive regula-
tory agencies, plus the usual few for whom there is no name. you
don't expect, and you do not receive, anything more than a yes/no.
but it was in these circumstances I 'heard' the comments on recovery.
and their ability to measure that differential gets better
every year! No, I do not consider 'erased' disks safe from a
determined federal agency. I keep sensitive stuff on zip drives
which are removable, and easily crippled forever. that and our
principal [a]vocation: stronger cryptography than the hardware can
bruteforce or trick.
--
Cyberspace and Information are Freedom!
FUCK your WIPO, too.
-attila
