The Great Zero Challenge

Ian Batten ukcrypto at chiark.greenend.org.uk
Sat, 6 Sep 2008 21:32:26 +0100 

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I don't know about anyone else, but I have auditors making strong  
noises about data destruction on disks containing sensitive  
information.  I gather the fun increases when it's protectively marked  
--- cynics who say that the correct way to dispose of government data  
is to mark it `sensitive' and leave it outside your office door with  
the empty milk bottles are just being difficult --- especially if the  
disk itself has failed in some way so it can't have data erasure  
software run.

These dudes are challenging people to recover data from a disk that's  
been overwritten with zeros once.    The silence is deafening: you  
would naively expect that companies that sell data erasure software  
would be able to test their own software to show that it wipes blanker  
than mere dd-ing of zeroes over the top, but clearly not...

http://16systems.com/zero/index.html

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/06/189248
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<html><body style=3D"word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; =
-webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><base href=3D"data:"><div =
style=3D"font-family: 'Segoe UI'; font-size: 13px; color: black; =
text-align: left; ">I don't know about anyone else, but I have auditors =
making strong noises about data destruction on disks containing =
sensitive information. &nbsp;I gather the fun increases when it's =
protectively marked --- cynics who say that the correct way to dispose =
of government data is to mark it `sensitive' and leave it outside your =
office door with the empty milk bottles are just being difficult --- =
especially if the disk itself has failed in some way so it can't have =
data erasure software run.</div><div style=3D"font-family: 'Segoe UI'; =
font-size: 13px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><div =
style=3D"font-family: 'Segoe UI'; font-size: 13px; color: black; =
text-align: left; ">These dudes are challenging people to recover data =
from a disk that's been overwritten with zeros once. &nbsp; &nbsp;The =
silence is deafening: you would naively expect that companies that sell =
data erasure software would be able to test their own software to show =
that it wipes blanker than mere dd-ing of zeroes over the top, but =
clearly not...</div><div style=3D"font-family: 'Segoe UI'; font-size: =
13px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br></div><a =
href=3D"http://16systems.com/zero/index.html">http://16systems.com/zero/in=
dex.html</a><div style=3D"font-family: 'Segoe UI'; font-size: 13px; =
color: black; text-align: left; "><br =
class=3D"webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><a =
href=3D"http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D08/09/06/189248">htt=
p://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=3D08/09/06/189248</a></div></body=
></html>=

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