The same applies to disks that you can no longer boot, but which may still store sensitive data that could be recovered by other means. How to securely destroy any storage mediumįinally, if you’ve used a device to house very sensitive data, then physical destruction is your best option, particularly if you can no longer boot it to use secure deletion tools on it in the first place. Feeling lost? It's simpler than it sounds but do proceed with care. However, if you’re comfortable following somewhat detailed instructions, you can boot a live Linux distro that includes the hdparm tool – Ubuntu does – and follow the ATA Secure Erase guide to wipe your SSD from the command line. The easiest option if you need one is to pay $11 for Parted Magic, burn it to a DVD or USB drive, boot it and use Enhanced Erase to wipe your SSD. Generic SSD wiping tools are thin on the ground. Use the J and K keys on your keyboard to page through your available disks and F10 to begin the wiping process. You then need to open the ISO and follow the instruction to start DBAN. Once this is done, burn the ISO file you just downloaded to a disc or USB stick (to separate it from your hard drive) using a tool such as Rufus or Balena Etcher. The easiest way to securely erase a mechanical Windows or Linux system disk is to download a piece of software called Darik's Boot and Nuke ( DBAN). This is where things get a little more hardcore. That also means that, when you Erase all content and settings when preparing to pass on your iOS device, your data will be rendered cryptographically inaccessible. IOS is a bit more hardcore by default than Android, in that all your data is strongly encrypted by default, with keys handled by a dedicated hardware Secure Enclave Processor found in Apple's mobile devices. Some recovery tools, such as Disk Digger Pro, which costs £2.30, have disk wiping features that fill up space occupied by files now marked as deleted, and then erase them. While that might come as a relief if you’ve accidentally wiped your phone without backing up your treasured meme collection, it’s not particularly helpful from a security perspective. Rooting is a process that allows you to get root, or highest level, access to the Android operating system code and is similar to jailbreaking Apple devices. If you haven’t encrypted your Android device, a standard factory reset isn’t enough to ensure that your old files can’t be recovered, particularly if the phone is rooted. Multiple cycles of this constitute secure deletion compliant with British and US government guidelines. If you delete everything from a hard disk on a phone or PC, write over every sector with junk data, and then delete that, the original deleted data becomes virtually unrecoverable. Even after you delete a file and empty your trash, all this does is mark the sector of drive it was on as available to be written. Regardless of what kind of disk your device has, it’s important to remember that deletion isn’t erasure. You’ll also find both inside portable external hard disks. Solid-state is ubiquitous in smartphones and tablets and also widely used in desktop and laptop PCs. Internal storage found in all phones and computers comes in two main flavours: magnetic hard disks write data to spinning platters and usually provide more capacity for your money solid-state storage is faster and more physically robust as there are no moving parts. So, to help protect your privacy, here’s the WIRED guide to securely wiping your data. Unfortunately, unethical chancers can, have and will data-mine second-hand hardware. It makes sense to reuse, recycle, give away or sell on fully functional phones and computers when you’ve upgraded to the next model.
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