Computer Advice

[Marblehead]

On 8/16/2018 at 4:26 PM, joeblast said:

lol....Q mentions Xbox logs yesterday, 45 min later Xbox network goes down for like 2 hours - people were able to reconnect - if they hard powered off their devices.  Not sure if Xbox works like a lot of other pieces of hardware, who dump their log files upon such a process.

Deleting files from a hard drive only removes the file name from being viewed.  The files are still there until over-written by saving another file.

 

To actually erase a file is a different procedure and it is best done off-line.

 

 

~~~ STAFF SPLIT FROM ANOTHER THREAD ~~~

 

[windwalker]

14 hours ago, joeblast said:

lol....Q mentions Xbox logs yesterday, 45 min later Xbox network goes down for like 2 hours - people were able to reconnect - if they hard powered off their devices.  Not sure if Xbox works like a lot of other pieces of hardware, who dump their log files upon such a process.

 

for those interested in wiping their drive

 

https://dban.org/

 

[joeblast]

19 hours ago, Marblehead said:

Deleting files from a hard drive only removes the file name from being viewed.  The files are still there until over-written by saving another file.

 

To actually erase a file is a different procedure and it is best done off-line.

 

the more pertinent issue would be how easily is it to remotely access them - by forcing everyone to dump their logs, it makes the more simple access methods unfruitful

[Marblehead]

27 minutes ago, joeblast said:

the more pertinent issue would be how easily is it to remotely access them - by forcing everyone to dump their logs, it makes the more simple access methods unfruitful

If you use Microsoft you are covered.  The government is watching over you.

 

[Eques Peregrinus]

7 hours ago, windwalker said:

 

for those interested in wiping their drive

 

https://dban.org/

 

 

A warning on solutions to wipe specific files instead of entire drives:

If it is rater easy to erase an entire drive, it is not possible to guarantee that the content of a file is completely erased in a modern file system. File systems are designed to avoid data loss at all costs and implement several strategies to ensure this. The same can be said for SSD, but for different reasons. So it is not surprising to find these lines in this software's website:

Quote

While DBAN is free to use, there’s no guarantee your data is completely sanitized across the entire drive. It cannot detect or erase SSDs and does not provide a certificate of data removal for auditing purposes or regulatory compliance.

 

A better option to ensure that sensitive data remain secret would be to use an encrypted drive, there are a few tools that exists for that, like BitLocker or dm-crypt.

[dawei]

I think CCleaner has a 'wipe free space' option.

[Kar3n]

Don't forget bleach bit! 😃

 

[Lost in Translation]

1 hour ago, Eques Peregrinus said:

A better option to ensure that sensitive data remain secret would be to use an encrypted drive

 

This.

 

Set a drive encryption at boot. If you lose your drive (easy on laptops or usb/thumb drives) then thieves have a much harder job.

 

I also recommend removing yourself from local admin group. Run as an unprivileged user and change to admin only when needed. It's less convenient but it adds another level of security.

[joeblast]

On 8/17/2018 at 5:27 PM, Lost in Translation said:

 

This.

 

Set a drive encryption at boot. If you lose your drive (easy on laptops or usb/thumb drives) then thieves have a much harder job.

 

I also recommend removing yourself from local admin group. Run as an unprivileged user and change to admin only when needed. It's less convenient but it adds another level of security.

but if the thieves happen to have the nsa's toolkit, then the hardware exploits at the firmware level will make that encryption no big deal - they'll have the key, no hacking or breaking required.

 

which was another reason why san bernadino was bullshit, and apple's fake incredulity at a request to unlock the device saw everyone wink and nod behind the scenes - Apple was able to save face by saying we wont unlock it.....but when its comp'd at the firmware level....fuhgeddaboudit...

Edited August 20, 2018 by joeblast

[Marblehead]

Well, if you are using Windows 10 forget about protecting anything.  You are being watched.