Questions tagged [deletion]
Secure deletion of data.
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Is the information from SD card still recoverable if I use full format (uncheck quick format) in Windows?
I need to wipe SD card so that information from it is not recoverable. If I perform full format in Windows by unchecking the "Quick Format" check box and format SD card that way is the ...
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Will a buyer be able to restore my personal data from my iPhone? [duplicate]
I want to sell my iPhone but it has lots of personal data on it. Apple suggests to Erase All Content and Settings before selling an iPhone. Is this enough to reliably delete all data or will it be ...
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Reliably destroy all information on magnetic disk through digital medium
In a scenario where a person wants to give away their device (magnetic disk included), leaving the disk usable for the receiver, how might that person go about destroying ALL data (except firmware) on ...
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Is filling the internal storage of an Android device using `dd` sufficient for data removal?
I have a rooted phone I'm willing to sell, but I had Personally Identifiable Information (PII) on it and I am questioning whether filling the internal storage with null bytes using dd would be ...
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Deleting files from folder encrypted with fscrypt
I have a folder encrypted with fscrypt. If I unlock this folder and delete a file from it (as the folder is unlocked anyone can see the contents of the files), then after deletion I lock this folder ...
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How can data from VirtualBox leak to the host and how to avoid it?
I used a virtual machine (Windows host/Linux mint guest) to store some very sensitive and private data (it shouldn't be uncovered by state-level actors). Today I decided to check how much deleted ...
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Signal — Can message previews of the messages you send be disabled in the chats’ list of your addressee?
Premise
Signal is armed with measures to instil a sense of privacy in users by preventing undisclosed screenshotting and screencasting message threads, and by enabling the sender to set their text, ...
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Can a deleted file on an SSD with trim enabled be recovered? [duplicate]
I'm just wondering from a security stand point if a deleted file on an SSD with trim enabled can be recovered? I've did some research and it would seem it is impossible unless for some reason trim ...
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Data remanence - DDR2
I read "Data Remanence in Semiconductor Devices" by Peter Gutmann, in which it is stated that it is possible to reconstruct the content of an erased SRAM based on changes of properties of ...
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Erased encrypted HDD, then secure erased 10% of it before selling it - is it safe?
I have a 4TB mechanical hard drive that was encrypted before I ever wrote any file on it. I used a 25 character password with symbols.
Before I sold it, I unmounted the disk while it was still ...
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How can you securely destroy data permanently and completely? [duplicate]
I have some extremely sensitive data on a computer, hard drive, and on a private server. I do not care about cost or method, as I have a lot of funds (though not unlimited) and I do not want to go ...
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How to wipe out data on a USB drive that is faulty, so that data can't be recovered?
I have several faulty USB drives and I like to return these to the vendor to get my money back - but without the vendor being able to access any data which might be still on the drives
Problem is, the ...
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How to prevent the recovery of deleted files without a full format of external HDD?
How can I securely delete selected files so they can’t be recovered, but without the full format of the external HDD? Is this even possible?
I’m using Mac OS.
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Can ransomware impact SSD drives?
I was watching this DefCon talking about Solid State Drives (SSDs) destroying forensic and data recovery jobs. It was interesting to note, that the speaker did acknowledge that it is unknown how long ...
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ThinkShield secure wipe - SSD does it forbid data recovering?
I have to give my computer back to my boss.
I want to delete all the data from my SSD. I found "ThinkShield secure wipe" which is implemented in the BIOS apparently.
It gives me two options:
...
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What ways other than password and authorized SSH key are there to log in to a Linux system?
When deleting a user on a Linux system, if you lock their password and kill all their processes, a logged in user disconnects and can't log in with his password anymore.
But if they still have an ...
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Can encrypted and deleted files be recovered?
If you’ve watched the news, you know that Secret Service text messages were deleted. Now they’re trying to recover them.
If those text messages were encrypted before deletion, and the key was also ...
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Full disk encryption and data recovery capabilities [duplicate]
So I had linux mint with fde, had sensitive files on it, shut down my pc, and reinstalled a new linux mint OS with fde. What are the chances of data recovery from the first OS?
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Safest way to wipe sensitive information off company phone before giving it away [duplicate]
We have a lot of devices in my company that we use to test and after some years some of them become unsupported.
We are thinking about selling some of the ones that are not used any more but worry ...
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How file deletion works?
If deleting files just removes the references then why not just delete the actual files instead of just removing the references?
Just removing the references leaves the file intact until it is ...
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If we open a file using a program, but then later securely delete that file, is it possible for that file to be recovered via that program?
Or I open a video using vlc media player, and later delete it securely. Does vlc "retain" some of the parts of that video even after deletion?
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How do I delete files securely? [duplicate]
I'm trying to make an app that can encrypt files and decrypt them on demand(for educational purposes)
I need a way to:
delete the file from where it was before
delete the file each time the app ...
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Log4shell - Should affected servers be "nuked from the orbit"?
Considering how log4shell seems trivial to exploit and the important control level it gives to an attacker, should we wipe everything affected and start over?
For example, we find out that a publicly ...
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Can SD cards on mobile phones and tablets truly be erased?
When performing a factory reset on Android devices, it is my understanding that the pointers to the data located in the SD card are simply erased while the data itself remains intact, waiting for ...
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What happens to apps, files, objects in a VM if it gets deleted
Usually, when a file is deleted on your computer, it is simply unlinked. The file data is still stored on your disk, there's just nothing pointing to that spot in the memory, and the OS interprets ...
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Encrypting file = Overwriting file?
When thinking of encrypting a file (also how I implemented it in a program of mine), I think of getting the data of a file, encrypting it, and writing it back into the file (overwriting the file).
But ...
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Which temperature ensures permanent erasure of data on flash?
Which heat ensures permanent loss of data on flash memory, in particular, on consumer-grade USB thumb drives (e.g., http://www.amazon.de/dp/B085SXT9FS or http://www.hood.de/0094819941.htm )? How long ...
user270138
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How can I wipe an infected SSD [duplicate]
Recently my PC fell subject to some malware. The malware is hidden and all the antivirus software can't find/detect it. The things it has done so far is spyware like, it disabled System Restore from ...
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Is there some way to "fully delete" received and sent SMS messages (and any other "deleted" data") on my cellphone?
I have a cheap cellphone bought about ten years ago. It has a physical SIM card. I have in-phone "deleted" all sent and received messages, but very strongly suspect that these are still ...
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Securely deleting Volume Shadow Service (VSS) in Windows 10
Suppose that VSS is enabled and snapshots exist. If I run a program to wipe the free disk space on my drive, would this delete the VSS snapshots? It might do since the program works by filling up the ...
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If SSDs cannot be securely wiped then why can't we recover files after crypto virus attack?
It is my understanding that SSDs do not allow user to overwrite any specific file completely (wear-leveling). So in case of ransomware attack such as CryptoLocker, doesn't that mean there is still, ...
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What is encryption key reset and why it is safer than zero-write?
I am about to return my ThinkPad laptop to my (former) employer. I found a very nice solution to erase / protect my private data -- ThinkWipe application in ThinkPad's BIOS. I made use of it right ...
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Does certutil -delkey actually delete the certificate and private key?
I am trying to delete a certificate and it's private key using certutil -csp "Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider v1.0" -delkey "the key container". This gave me a command ...
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Print sensitive info without leaving data on the printer
I'm not sure if there is already a question here about this because I can't find anything. But I'm wondering if there are any "safer" ways to print sensitive information without leaving ...
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Does running "rm -P /path/to/file" secure erase file from a data forensic perspective when used on spinning disk?
According to man rm:
Overwrite regular files before deleting them. Files are
overwritten three times, first with the byte pattern 0xff,
then 0x00, and then 0xff again, before they are deleted.
How ...
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Reccomended way to securely erase SSD storage of a smartphone? [duplicate]
As far as what I understand there are different approaches and I have a few doubts regarding each of them:
On the one hand, it seems that factory reset does not securely erase itself data from SSD ...
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secure deletion in virtual machines [duplicate]
when we securely delete a volume in a machine which is installed in a virtual machine or docker, for example by overwriting 7 times or more, we securely delete the data in virtual disk (in guest) and ...
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How to ensure that information deleted from external hard drive cannot be recovered after being sold? [duplicate]
I've finished migrating data from several drives on to one newer disk. The older drives were a mix of old mechanical drives, thumb (flash) drives, and SSDs.
Now I will dispose of the worthless drives ...
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Storage media byte state from shelf and after different formatting algorithms
We are told to erase (overwrite) sensitive files, not only simply "delete" it (i.e. only remove the information where it exists). For the moment being, I'd like to focus on the following and ...
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Do external harddrives keep track of the computers they're plugged in to?
I know that it's possible for a computer to set up logging or auditing, and keep track of what devices are plugged into IT. But do external harddrives keep track of what computers THEY are ever ...
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How do I destroy references to wiped files?
I partially wiped my hard drive using the null-fill method through command prompt by
copying a 1 Gigabyte file filled with NULL over and over until I ran out of space.
After that I tried recovering ...
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Deleted files still detectable with Wondershare RecoverIt
Basically I have a few files / folders that I want permanently deleted. I deleted them securely with hardwipe, but when I try to search into the folder where they were located with Wondershare ...
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Is Eraser secure and efficient?
I have come across a file eraser called Eraser, and I have two questions about it:
Are file erasers sufficient for completely removing secure files/folders on a computer (meaning is it possible, in ...
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Can File Shredder shred just one file? [closed]
Can File Shredder be used to purge specifically Temporary Internet Files rather than the whole disk?
Is there any option to just shred the Temporary Internet Files, and nothing else?
Is this a good ...
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Erasing hard drives (HDD & SSD) for donation
I'm planning to donate a laptop to a school, for kids to use from home during the pandemic.
It's my previous work/development laptop, so I want to erase the drives as securely as possible
(within ...
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What information do ISPs delete after retention period?
Whenever I read something like "ISPs store your data" or "ISPs delete your data after 6 months" or anything like that, I imagine data to be the following things:
(1) At what time I ...
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Wiping a hard large hard drive efficiently but securely step by step
I want to sell my old 4TB Hard Drive.
Of course I want no one to steal my data.
Overwriting the whole drive with zeros with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda would take about 18h.
But I cannot reboot my PC ...
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Still able to recover files after running cipher.exe on windows 7
After running cipher.exe on my entire C: drive, I'm still able to recover deleted files using recuva. In fact, doing a before and after, I see no discernible difference in the files that are able to ...
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How to secure file delete/wipe on mobile phones?
With old HDD to secure delete a file you need to use Gutmann standard, but with new HDD you can use only 1 pass overwrite
I'm not sure what hard drives mobile phones use and don't know how many passes ...
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Using an example to comprehend why “safely” erasing a drive yields better results than filling it up with meaningless data
A hypothetical 1GB USB stick is full of sensitive documents/images/etc. and it is not encrypted.
The owner wishes to discard it and is aware of having to safely erase it first.
There are several tools ...
