Re: Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives

["Vince Vargiya (OculusIT)" <vince_vargiya () OCULUSIT COM>]

Statistically, erasing SSD hard drives is about 30% successful as technically they are architected differently than the 
traditional magnetic HDs. Some laptops come with inbuilt tools to help erase the SSDs, and it’s preferred to overwrite 
data to be sure that it is inaccessible. Degaussing doesn’t work on the SSDs or the flash drives. The surest way to 
ensure complete wipe out is using HDD destroyers like Crunch, Flashpro etc. But that would mean making the SSD unusable 
forever.


Vince Vargiya | Information Security Manager | OculusITTM
E: vince_vargiya () oculusit com | T: 844-462-8587 x 193

www.OculusIT.com<http://www.oculusit.com/>




[cid:image002.jpg@01D56885.DB88C390]<https://www.oculusit.com/educause-2019/>



________________________________
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> on behalf of Brad Judy 
<brad.judy () CU EDU>
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2019 10:24 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives


While it goes deep into the high security/paranoia realm, single punch destruction isn’t the standard when it comes to 
solid state devices. Full physical destruction of an SSD using a press should be a “bed of nails” approach to ensure 
that all of the chips are broken. Of course, you’re talking about a pretty high security environment if you’re worried 
about people pulling data off of individual chips, but those in high value research might consider it.



Brad Judy



Information Security Officer

Office of Information Security

University of Colorado
1800 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO  80203

Office: (303) 860-4293

Fax: (303) 860-4302

www.cu.edu<http://www.cu.edu/>



[cu-logo_fl]





From: EDUCAUSE Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> on behalf of Michael Hart <mhart20 () MSUDENVER EDU>
Reply-To: EDUCAUSE Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 10:33 AM
To: EDUCAUSE Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU>
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives



We have an arbor press with a punch.  See attached results:







From: The EDUCAUSE Security Community Group Listserv <SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU> On Behalf Of Rob Milman
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 10:30 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Fully Erase Hard and Flash Drives



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<mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV 
EDUCAUSE EDU>> On Behalf Of Todd Watson
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2019 10:27 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU<mailto: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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