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Solid State Disk Makes Data Kill Easier

computerworld.com — Data on SSD can be erased much more quickly and thoroughly than it can with a magnetic, spinning hard disk.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 10, 2009

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  • Topher06, on 02/09/2009, -3/+53I am sure someone on CSI will find a way to read "zero'd" SSD. Just wait and see.
  • inactive, on 02/10/2009, -1/+39That's why I back up all my music to punch cards.
  • palehorse864, on 02/10/2009, -0/+38We've got a satellite photo of the suspect.

    Alright... Zoom... Enhance.. Alright, zoom on that point and enhance... Good job.. can you match those fingerprints?

    We'll run them through the computer.

    </exagerration, but not by much>
  • LongShlong, on 02/10/2009, -5/+41How about a solid snake disk?
  • LongShlong, on 02/10/2009, -1/+36... Which will have no bearing in real life.
  • EmperorChow, on 02/10/2009, -0/+32That just makes killing easier
  • opticalnoise, on 02/10/2009, -0/+21I'm really tired of unlimited 'enhancing' to perfect clarity. Total nonsense.
  • Sharik, on 02/10/2009, -2/+17"...the entire process could take three to four hours on a fast eSATA drive"

    WTF is an eSATA drive? I'm pretty sure that eSATA is a designation for variant of SATA meant for external port connectivity.

    NURRDRAAAGEEE FUUUUUKKKK!!!
  • neuber, on 02/10/2009, -1/+14You haven't been paying attention to MIT's studies have you....
    Granted what CSI showed was probably a bastardization of the concept, however there is some truth to the fiction so to speak.
  • ispshadow, on 02/10/2009, -4/+16Are you one of those "Internet Tough Guys"? Will you give me your autograph?!?!?!

    I think I'm going to faint.
  • Lunarbunny, on 02/10/2009, -0/+9SIM card makes no sense since the memory is non-volatile. The 'canned air' memory freezing trick is used for volatile memory like RAM.
  • RadiatedAnt, on 02/10/2009, -0/+9Bastardization? your going too easy on the show
  • Brassbud, on 02/10/2009, -0/+8I just wrap my HDDs in det cord when I install them...just in case.
  • CoreyHalliwell, on 02/10/2009, -1/+9He's kidding people... hes a ***** cartoon bear...
  • inactive, on 02/10/2009, -1/+9PURGE!! PURGE!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42QugHuWfs
  • warsongs7, on 02/10/2009, -0/+7Snake? Snake? SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • thisissami, on 02/10/2009, -0/+6what happened to using strong magnetic fields on HDDs?
  • Callidus, on 02/10/2009, -0/+6HDDs use magnetic platters, you think a few scratches are going to prevent the NSA from retrieving any data?

    Data recovery experts are insane.

    Unless the platters are melted into a gloop via thermite, some data at the very least will still be recoverable.
  • thisissami, on 02/10/2009, -1/+6oh c'mon, how can you guys not find that at least slightly funny?
  • SillyRabbits, on 02/10/2009, -1/+6If you honestly think you can pull useful data off shattered drive platters you don't have any idea what you are talking about. We're not talking about Hollywood/CSI's version of science here.
  • hoodedrobin, on 02/10/2009, -0/+5Yeah and putting CDs in the microwave is also awesome.

    /s
  • maz2331, on 02/10/2009, -2/+7No.

    But I did pop two .458's through a drive and take it in to Seagate's research center one time as a joke (I was doing computer work for them at the time). It was funny to see the reaction on the PhD's faces when I asked "Can we figure out the failure mode of this drive?"

  • t0ny, on 02/10/2009, -3/+7My mom was watching some csi kind of show and I happened to walk by and notice they were trying to recover some data from a cell phone. So they sprayed the sim card with some of that canned air stuff to freeze it then they took it out and stuck it in a computer. I started to laughing my ass off.
  • AaronCo, on 02/10/2009, -0/+4Problem is none of that is entirely predictable. They might be low the ground when they eject, or the munitions might not provide enough coverage to completely destroy the drive.

    Frankly I think the easiest way is to mount an aluminum or magnesium charge to the drive. Perhaps around the drive like a little explosive pillow. Have it set to detonate, say, 10 seconds after eject or crash. The resulting heat would melt the drive into goo, and the pressure from the explosion would scatter the goo.
  • liquidhalcyon, on 02/10/2009, -0/+4Uh-Uh-Uh...What's the Magic Word?
  • Murdats, on 02/10/2009, -0/+3I would just walk into the middle of no where, digg a whole and tada, data gone. maybe a lake who knows but either way good luck finding it, good luck knowing wtf it is if you find it. (and how would they even know it existed to look for it in the first place)
  • SillyRabbits, on 02/10/2009, -1/+4It takes far less than 15 seconds to make the data on a normal harddrive unrecoverable - if they want. Small pyrotechnics on a dive spinning at 7200rpm does wonders...
  • newwatch51, on 02/10/2009, -0/+3Not everyone has strong magnetic field generators just lying around
  • thesaba, on 02/10/2009, -2/+5that is totally what i read at first lol
  • neuber, on 02/10/2009, -2/+4...or you're the NSA.
  • t0ny, on 02/11/2009, -0/+2I should have made it more clear I know about the freezing the ram thing. Sim cards are non-volatile so that makes no sense.
  • AlienMushroom, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2Swords have two edges.
  • aywwts4, on 02/11/2009, -0/+2You aren't exaggerating one bit, I saw an old one where they took a grainy convenience mart video, zoomed in on a patron's sunglasses, "enhanced" looked at the reflection in the corner of the sunglasses, "enhanced" looked through the window in the reflection of the sunglasses, to look outside at the stoplight a over a block away "enhanced" and proved the light was green, not red, at exactly X time to get out of a traffic ticket.
  • hymneforthedead, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2I still find it just fine Erasing ATA's... I mean, thats what I've got a sludge hammer for.
  • Aeaus, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2Wouldn't it be easier to eject the disk and let atmospheric friction do the rest? Or better yet set off all the munitions after safe ejection to ensure un-recoverability of both the data and probably most of the plane?
  • stevenbrown, on 02/10/2009, -1/+35 pages? That's like a little novel right there
  • antdude, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?com ...
  • AndySavage, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2Okay, I love guns and all, but I swear every other gun owner on the internet is completely ***** retarded.
  • Harabeck, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2Most Japanese ones don't.
  • rafe101, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2I want to see the write cycle problem tackled. I don't know if, or after how long, it would be an issue in a main drive, but it gives me some pause about SSDs. It seems like if a portion was being used as a cache, it could reach the limit for the number of times it can be written to relatively quick.
  • drex8, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2A 5 page article should have an option to read it in one page. Shouldn't have to resort to the print version of the article. Thanks for the link, antdude.
  • BOFH139, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2It is actual MUCH harder to remove data from a SSD drive.
    There was a talk at ShmooCom on how-to recover data from SD and SSD units.
  • hymneforthedead, on 02/10/2009, -0/+2as long as it obliterates, who cares :)
  • GRTWHT, on 02/10/2009, -1/+2A 'sludge hammer'?

    A hammer made from recycled waste, maybe?
  • Harabeck, on 02/10/2009, -1/+220 years? I give it 5 years, 7 max.
  • AlienMushroom, on 02/10/2009, -0/+1Japanese are crooked.
  • kamisama, on 02/10/2009, -1/+2You see it pop up in comments on every damned article, it's killing the appeal it had. That's why.
  • EmailAddress, on 02/11/2009, -0/+1i was under the impression that the logic to wipe data on hard disks does not work on SSD. SSDs have memory effect, right? So if some data stays in the same location for a long time... it will be remembered for a good long time after it is deleted.

    Maybe the logic for SSDs is to save garbage data over the old and let it sit at the same value for a long time... therefore immediate delete doesn't work. Only thermite does immediate deletion for SSDs.
  • handheldchimp, on 02/10/2009, -2/+3Good...they will never recover the antidote from my harddrive now. Just need to buy an SSD drive...
  • NeoTechni, on 02/10/2009, -0/+1Which usually isn't a good thing....
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