Forums Bugs & issues Shredding capability Reply To: Shredding capability

#8013 Reply

Carl

1. I’m very surprised that you guys are implying that even Eraser (when using Guttman’s passes) is still not effective!

It’s not us implying anything; Guttman outright stated it’s a waste of time and always has been. There are lots of ignorant computer users out there who believe that a Guttman pass is the most secure because it has the highest number of passes; they should educate themselves.

“In fact performing the full 35-pass overwrite is pointless for any drive since it targets a blend of scenarios involving all types of (normally-used) encoding technology, which covers everything back to 30+-year-old MFM methods (if you don’t understand that statement, re-read the paper)”

 

2. So it bothers me that I’ve been using this stuff for years and have only just now tested the efficacy of the “shredding” I’ve been doing (with undesirable results)…and to have this randomly happen with Axcrypt now too.

We’ve already explained this to you. On old hard drives you could effectively perform a secure delete. You were safe, for years… until newer hard drives came out. It’s the user’s responsibility to keep themselves abreast of technological changes.

Caveat emptor. It’s your responsbility to understand the limitations of any technology you use. The ‘flaws’ in secure deletion aren’t unique to AxCrypt, they’re present in every “secure” delete program out there. It does it’s job – it makes recovering a file very difficult. It never has purported to securely erase filenames.

 

3. Just not getting the warm fuzzies anymore.

No sense of security is better than a false sense of security.

If your data is so sensitive then you’ll be using full disk encryption. If you’re not, we can’t help.

We’re not being obtuse but we can’t entertain an argument without logical foundation:

  • if your data is that sensitive, physically destroy the drive
  • if you don’t want physical destruction, use full disk encryption
  • if you’re concerned about filenames, use full disk encryption or use less descriptive filenames

Your complaint, whilst valid, is easily overcome by one of the simple methods above. We can’t change technology. Only you can make yourself more secure.