Filesystem Forensics

Content Leader: Jess Garcia - Last Updated: February 4, 2007

Secure Deletion Techniques

References

• One Big File is not Enough: A Critical Evaluation of the Dominant Free-Space Sanitization Technique - Paper - Presentation - Simson Garfinkel & David Malan - 2006

Recovery of Randomly Wiped Disks

• Recovery from a randomly wiped disk is considered to be impossible as of today even by Intelligence Agencies, in spite of Peter Guttman's paper Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory apparent claims. There is a wonderful review of Gutmann's paper and the whole topic by Daniel Feenberg in his article Can Intelligence Agencies Read Overwritten Data?.

• References
  • Top References:
    • Remembrance of Data Passed: A Study of Disk Sanitization Practices - Simson Garfinkel
  • Other References:
    • Secure File Deletion: Fact of Fiction? - John R. Mallery
    • Destructive Influence - Scott Granneman