Re: Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives

[Rob Milman <rob.milman () SAIT CA>]

Our team uses a 5-ton press. It’s become a stress relief exercise, similar to the Office Space printer smashing scene.


[cid:image004.png@01D18F19.9217E950]
Rob Milman
Associate Director, Information Security
Information Technology Services

Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
EH Crandell Building, GA 214
1301 – 16 Avenue NW, Calgary AB, T2M 0L4

(Office) 403.774.5401  (Cell) 403.606.3173
rob.milman () sait ca<mailto:rob.milman () sait ca>




From: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> On Behalf Of Todd Watson
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 10:27 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives

Agreed, Kevin.

Because of the variations in hardware design, complete deletion of flash drives may not be possible based on the 
factors to which you alluded. We shred before discarding.

Regards,
---
Dr. W. Todd Watson, CISSP
Information Security Officer
University System of Georgia
Cybersecurity
706-583-2400
todd () usg edu<mailto:todd () usg edu>

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV 
EDUCAUSE EDU>> on behalf of Kevin Wilcox <wilcoxkm () APPSTATE EDU<mailto:wilcoxkm () APPSTATE EDU>>
Reply-To: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV 
EDUCAUSE EDU>>
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 12:10 PM
To: "SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>" <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE 
EDU<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives

On Thu, 26 Sep 2019 at 11:58, White, Ryan <Whitery () bhc edu<mailto:Whitery () bhc edu>> wrote:

BHC is looking for a program to erase hard drives and flash drives.  What programs do you recommend to completely wipe 
USB and Hard Drives?  We are currently using an open source program when the need arises but that doesn’t erase flash 
drive and Solid State Drives.  Any input would be appreciated!

My short answer is, "it depends".

My longer answer is, "generally speaking, I'm happy with encrypting a drive with BitLocker and then formatting it or 
using Secure Erase in the ATA standard".

My long answer is "cue folks talking about wear levelling and how you can't trust the drive to *actually* remove that 
data and what about the areas of the drive where data may be stored that you can't overwrite and a bonded destruction 
company is the only acceptable method and ..."

That's a big ol' can of worms, I hope you're ready to do some fishin'.

kmw

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