The ‘H/W Quick Erase’ function, which fries the flash memory, should probably have a more forbidding name.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Unless you have had three independent data recovery companies confirm the data can’t be recovered - I’m not buying it.

    For the software erase it says:

    Even if power is interrupted during the data wiping process, the drive will automatically resume clearing data the next time it gets power, says Team Group.

    We aren’t sure of the wiping algorithm or tech, so we would assume there remains a chance of data recovery after this software-powered wipe, or partial wipe.

    For the hardware erase, it says recovery might be more effort than it’s worth. So sounds like neither mode gets proven results.

    It’s essentially a dangerous scam.

    • notabot@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      It does seem like it would be simpler and more reliable to use full disk encryption to encrypt the data before it’s written, and just destroy the key if you want to nuke the data.

        • notabot@piefed.social
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          22 hours ago

          Destroying the encryption key tends to be the only reliable way to put the data beyond use. Physical destruction techniques like the obe in the article have been tried before, and iften leave the data intact, just destroying the driver side of the chips. It’s not easy to retrieve the data, but a sufficiently determined and resourced oppinent can do it.

          Obviously, there’s no reason not to do both, for added certainty, but if the encryption protocols used in proper FDE are compromised, we have a lot more to worry about.

    • Davel23@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      For the hardware erase, it says recovery might be more effort than it’s worth. So sounds like neither mode gets proven results.

      No, it says that soldering new ICs onto the drive to be able to re-use it is likely more effort than it’s worth. The original ICs are still burnt.