[Trilug-ontopic] secure removal of files on a usb stick

[David Burton]

The problem with srm is that it doesn't overwrite the freespace, which
might contain recoverable data.

However, there's no need to repeatedly overwrite. It wastes time and puts
unnecessary wear on the device. The fear that someone could recover data
which has only been overwritten once is superstitious nonsense. This is
sufficient:

ddrescue /dev/zero dev/sda1

Dave



On Sat, Jul 26, 2014 at 8:04 PM, Greg Brown <gwbrown1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Which is better in theory?  To use srm like this:
>
> srm -v -r ./usb-stick-mount-point
>
> or to umount the drive and go with:
>
> shred -vzn 3 /dev/sda#  (in this case sda1)
>
> Throw out the 3 vs. 38 wipes of data - if that is critical assume 'shred
> -vzn 38'.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Greg
>
>
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