Is there any software, program etc... that is out there that can do a complete computer dump in case of an emergency? Kinda like a fast format or HD wipe?
Thanks
Enforcer
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Is there any software, program etc... that is out there that can do a complete computer dump in case of an emergency? Kinda like a fast format or HD wipe?
Thanks
Enforcer
You mean emergency like the feds are coming over or......what?
delete the partition or physical drive destruction are going to be your fastest. Deleting the partion isn't guarenteed to get rid of all the data. I guess a really big powered magnet would work too.
I did a search and found a thread like this so thanks. But if there is anything new and faster, please feel free to leave any comments.
Thanks
You can try this program http://www.hackology.com/programs/hdkp/ginfo.shtml
Haha the ol'e hard drive killer pro. Quite frankly, I love me an old sledgehammer to do the job =D but why would you be needing something to delete your entire HD and every component of it so quickly?
would this work?
if you are running windows,
get a win 98 boot disk
then at the prompt, run fdisk
i like the magnet idea too lol
haha good question.. dunno much about Win98 but, fdisk probably would work.. nice nickname too tokeafatty420 ;)
1st pull the HD.
2nd put said HD into microwave.
3rd put microwave on high for 3min.
4th stand at less 20ft away.
5th take HD and put in water.(it will be hot)
6th then use a hammer.
PS Shame on you for putting pono on our little sisters HD.
There is a Military program called E-purge that is desigend to do exactly that.
It is on a cd-rom, all you do is put it in your drive, run the .exe file on it and let it do the rest.
When i seen it, it took just over 12 mins to wipe a 60GB HDD!!
As it is a Military program though im not sure if it is available on civi street!
I was shown this about two years ago so it might be available by now.
I googled e-purge and a few results came up but nothing that sounds like the program i am talking about!
Hope you can find it!
Honestly, if you want to really really destroy all of the data on a hard drive you are going to have to overwrite the entire disk with random data atleast 7-10 times. That would be DoD 5200.28-STD. An even better standard would the Peter Gutman-std which does 35 passes and alternates between random data and repeating data. How quickly you can do this is going to depend totally on the IO speed of the disk. This is about the only way to be 100% positive that everything is gone.
Slamming a harddrive with a sledgehammer will not destroy any data on the disk, except at those sectors where the IO heads slams into the disk. Although I am sure a good computer forensics person would be able to recover even that data. I have read about computers being damaged in house fires and forensic companies being able to restore 50-100% of the data.
Wiping a drive with a big'ol magnet is a good idea, but you really have no way to know that all of the data is gone for sure. And more than likely the disk will be ruined.
Hey Thanks DeadAddict, looks like a pretty good trojan. And to everyone else, I am not trying to hide porn of ANY kind, I just want to be careful because I was stupid enough to leak out what I do during my spare time. Anyways, I also found DBan which looks just as good but am trying to so If I can get something that can run unattended. Kinda like load and leave so it will work automatically without any user input.
Keep it coming though.
Thanks!
Enforcer
bcwipe has scheduling features and will run unattended. You can set it up to delete all of your temporary files and things of that nature. Also has a good file shredder, as well as having the capability to encrypt your page file and wipe it securely on reboot.
if u are really worried about destroying any data you have you could try bootingand running on the ram. Someone come in u dont like pull the plug and wham its all gone. downside u have to book form a disk and if the power goes out while your doing something you lose it all.
I'd stick with a high powered magnet. That'll messup any data for sure. I don't think anything would be recoverable from that point.
Should the feds be coming over, you won't have time to do any of the other stuff mentioned above.
I keep my case open, and a magnet right on the top of the case, readily accessible.
Also, look into a bootable diskette that you can boot to that doesn't require any prompting, just boot and format. This way, if you need to do this quick, you can just reboot with the floppy in the drive and put the magnet on the drive as it's working. (Total corruption)
That's the smart way, none of this time consuming stuff that has been mentioned above.
--PuRe
hey at work we format all the machines it redoes the partition and wipes it quick...the prog is named quickdisk but i'll have to search for it. You boot the floppy select the partition(s) that u wanna delete and format/wipe and it does it less than 15 sec. and thats it. I'll look for it...if i dont find it tonight you'll have it tomorrow when i'm at work.
I guess that around 2oz of C4 will do the job? PE4 in my country?
That'll sure do it. They'd have to recontruct the drive itself before they could even begin to reconstruct data.Quote:
--PuRe
So would something like a degauss ring work?
Why not get yourself a small vat of concentarted Hydrochloric acid ??
That should nicely disolve all the metal in your HDD once you have ripped it out of your PC :D
This is very dangerous and will certainly damage your microwave.Quote:
Originally posted here by LapKitten
1st pull the HD.
2nd put said HD into microwave.
3rd put microwave on high for 3min.
Steve
There are no guarantees that using a magnet will delete all of the data off of a drive. DoD requires that if you are going to use a magnet to wipe a drive the magnet has to be able to fluctuate the power of the magnetic field to insure the data is wiped. With a normal magnet that you cannot change the magnetic field, you may end up leaving a lot of data available for a forensic scientist to find. Degaussing is much more effective than a magnet, but again, you have to use a degausser that is specifically designed to wipe a harddrive.
Here is a DoD memo with guidelines on destroying data: www.doim.army.mil/a2rmp/docs/harddrives1.doc
I would question the external magnet method as well. The magnetic density on todays hard drive is extremely strong (meaning very dense and powerful). It would take a seriously powerfull magnet. Esecially since most HDs are shielded. You can very the magnetic field by swirling it around the object but again, it's just not going to be powerfull enough.
The bottom line here I think is: there is NO quick way to destroy the data. Why not encrypt the drive instead?
I wanted to dig this post up from the grave to see if there are any new developments out there. After doing some research, I have come to the conclusion that I would only build a hard drive degausser is to prevent somone in my department from using anything that I have against me.
Issue:
Management has changed in my department (IS) and now management is on a witch hunt. A hunt that would give them any reason to hold anything against us , the department. The management now constitutes 2 techs that got promoted and now think they are over our heads for lack of real managerial skills. Why I know? I have 2 bachelors degrees in Science in Information management and Mangagement and have been harrassed because of their lack of education. I have been reprimanded with little issues used against me such as computer games and such which were pre installed. Mind everyone that reads this, I work as a Network Admin in the department. Lets put it this way, I respect anyone with extensive experience with no education, but neither of them have education or current up to date experience.
I want to build this degaussing device because as of my current social engineering of everyone in management all the way up to our director, I have read and heard from reliable third party information, that anything and everything will be used to hold against us. This includes, studying at work (IS related certifications), and gaming activity (Installed with OS or non-pre installs), internet activity (casual surfing on non company time), etc.... Recent developments and comments made by our supervisor, auditing will start to occur without anyone's knowledge including us within the department. Being company policy I don't care because it is company policy. But springing this on us, being in the department, I feel as if the department is an outsider like the rest of the departments. After all, in our policy, our techs/admins, job description states that we do the auditing of machines in the company.
With that, I am looking at any ideas how to create a degaussing machine that will do enough to render the Hard drive inoperable without the fear the it will be sent to a government agency for further recovery. It wouldn't be in the companies best interest to send off hard drives with shareware and free screensavers to justify the cause.
The degaussing device would have to be small enough to fit in a back pack with the preffered use of the 110v AC outlet with a Coercivity strength greater that 1700.
I was thinking along the lines of using a 300-400watt power supply as the means of power and a TV coil wrapped around a block or something that can be placed inside an open computer and turned on to degauss.
Any comments would greatly be appreciated.
Enforcer
De-gaussers get VERY hot VERY quickly
at present I work in the NHS [UK] and part of the contract was to strip out old HDD's and de-gauss prior to them being sent to the scrap man .......
Using the manufacturers instructions, it still tripped out on the thermostat within two minutes...........
Although, reading the first section of your post .........
If the atmosphere there is THAT bad ............................. LEAVE.
You have qualifications and experience [although you appear to be sadly lacking in common sense, viz-a-vie the surfing / gaming attitudes.]
You are at WORK
leave your ideas of what constitutes a good day on the PC till you are at home on your own system..............
I have free access to ALL areas of the entire Enterprise Domain, yet I do not abuse ANY of it, I do not surf nor play at work.
Further to your request for de-gauss input .........
is the item to be kept in your machine permanently ?
or do you intend to carry it round in a rucksack [NOT a good idea in the UK at the moment]
IF you are intending to carry it ............................ how does that fit into a rapid response tool ?
I feel that you are out of options, and SERIOUSLY need to think of a NEW employer .......
Pax
instead of planning a fast action clean up why dont you just remove the games from your computer, and stop surfing. its simple. their equipment, their building, their rules. No sane employer will run recovery on a hard drive just to bust an employee that is playing games. thats stupid and a HUGE waste of time/money. but they have every right to fire you/repremand you for playing games on the clock, or surfing nonwork related webpages (reguardless of if you are on the clock or not). and im sure you will be in a hell of a lot more trouble when you get caught drying to run the scam you are doing. Besides if they are doign things the way you make them sound then you will get caught. besides how do you explian having to restore your computer, or getting a new hard drive to the employer?
Let me give some background:
Before our current lower management came on, our last manager was pretty liberal. Since I work third shift, my director and manager didn't have a problem with me studying for certs and looking at new technology as well as catch some Z's on the shift as long as I got the work done which I always did. My old manager even made a comment that there was a reason why they bought us all DVD players in our workstations.
I am one for always following management and guidelines that are set in place. But since this ass got into his position, all he had to do was make a schedule and now after putting my hard time in this company, longer than him, I will be working weekends after 5 years. And when I try to talk with him and management, all he wants to say is work it out with your wife. Granted this is the same ******* who bitched as a tech that he didn't need his job and left in the middle of the day. The same bastard who said he needed weekends off to spend time with this 16 year old daughter.
In the end, he is finding anything and everything to hold against me and the rest of the department to justify why he is a manager and the supervisor is a supervisor.
I can rant on forever but the bottom line, I have no games, no nothing on my computer. I don't even surf the net for anything at all.
Now why shouldn't someone like me expose these people as frauds? Maybe it isn't my place, but I promise that I won't stand and do nothing to protect myself.
As for seeing my re-installing back to factory and the questions of dead drives? Well. it happens all the time.
I learned that I can't BS my way in this industry like these 2 idiots did. Because I will swim and stay afloat and not sink like these fools believe me to do.
For the security stuff, and getting back to having access and limitations, I was told by my supervisor in which I will get that in writing, that I was permited to get a footprint of the network with no restrictions.
Quote:
Originally posted here by foxyloxley
Although, reading the first section of your post .........
If the atmosphere there is THAT bad ............................. LEAVE.
You have qualifications and experience [although you appear to be sadly lacking in common sense, viz-a-vie the surfing / gaming attitudes.]
It was a mere example of what they are pinning people for even though we many eye witness accounts with me being on of them, he has been seen surfing on non-related work sites as well as playing post installed games on his work PC. I do not play games on my computer, It was merely referenced that I have solitare and minesweeper on my computer implying that I sit there and play these games.
PaxQuote:
You are at WORK
leave your ideas of what constitutes a good day on the PC till you are at home on your own system..............
I have free access to ALL areas of the entire Enterprise Domain, yet I do not abuse ANY of it, I do not surf nor play at work.
Further to your request for de-gauss input .........
is the item to be kept in your machine permanently ?
or do you intend to carry it round in a rucksack [NOT a good idea in the UK at the moment]
IF you are intending to carry it ............................ how does that fit into a rapid response tool ?
I see it as one of those things for our supervisor to ponder. This is the same person who left lophtcrk on the server as well as other non-related porgrams for everyone to see and if not use. So since I already know that I have signed something stating that I have no rights to privacy on my workstation which I have no right to be upset about, gives him a challenge since he openely mocks his subordinates of being incompetent and nothing more than people that do grunt work.
I feel that I am a genuine worker. I do what I am told, and try to excel in my field. I feel that I have too much to learn and can never say that I "know everything" as it is stated in our supervisors job description. In short, it states that the supervisor doesn't have to have any education, not even an AA, no certifications at all, but must know "everything" in the department.
I am always in my books, study material, as well as my home network, always trying to stay up to date because this is the field I chose which I enjoy. Unfortunetly. I know the management side and yes, because of the environment, me and three other people are looking elsewhere even though I love working for the company.
Damn...sounds like you need to read The BOFH Chronicles for some inspiration....
Hey great. Now I know for sure that if I do that the FBI will be all over my ass which I don't want them to be.Quote:
Originally posted here by the_JinX
The best idea me and some friends could come up with is a thermite (no, not termite) pack ontop of the harddisk with a good primer, set to go as soon as the computer is opened (or tilted)..
Should leave them with no evidence, but a smouldering pile of molten metal :D
Enforcer
How about not focusing on destroying and focus on workarounds?
Do a good clean up of your current workstation and get rid of everything on there. Then wipe the slack space and cluster tips with the strongest possible. I've found eraser to be VERY good. I've not been able to recover any data using their strongest wipe. And thats using tools that the pros use. (not electron microscopes)
http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/ I'm pretty sure this is the one.
Then... Why not just bring in your own laptop or PDA? They can't touch that one, right?
Heck, the new palm has a 4gb HD on it.
Don't connect it to their network and you can use it all you want?
Or, use a live bootable CD (any knoppix varient) which doesn't touch the hard drive (it uses a ramdisk). Use a removable flash drive to store your data. It has your games, and multimedia programs, word processors, etc. all right there on the live cd. You'll just have to reboot to your normal OS for your normal work?
you have admin rights....right? why not run a cli proxy on the plick's computer and use it to connect to the internet. also with admin rights why haven't you collected evidence against any would be advisory?
as phish has stated a bootable cd and removable media would stealth your actions. bartPE is an easy to configure PE builder with which you can include any software and any drivers needed
as for magnets. machine shops use a device they call a 'de-magnitiser' for use with materials that have been help on surface grinders using magnets. weighs about 30-40 lbs but it would render any hd completly un-readable in seconds. just lay the entire computer over the block, wave it threw the field and volia! info gone.
Ok, some people reading this are reading it for info on wiping out a HDD beyond FBI/CIA recovery, others for whatever other reason...
The best way to wipe a HDD beyond recovery is to just toss the thing in a river :D.
First off,
I want to thank phish and tedob for some great advice to me and everyone out there. At the moment, I do bring in my laptop, I do use external proxies, and I did clean my work system over 2 months ago. I use eraser in conjunction with dban's autonuke. I also have Internet History eraser which cleans my tracks and yes, I have nothing but work related applications on that computer.
But the issue is just being safe and incompliance. Like I said, I don't want any excuse to be held against me. Which means that if I have to kill a hard drive to protect it, I will.
Now in all honesty, when would anyone here have in there enclosed work environment or home a drum of acid, or thermite explosives or uranium or whatever to destroy hardware. I know it is in all good and fun, but I am sure there are people out there that really want to know about data sanitation and destruction.
Thanks
In all honesty... I'd still go for not creating the "evidence" in the first place using a bootable distro, ramdisk and flash drive.
But, if you destroy a hard drive so they can't view/recover data... that is destruction of property. Won't you get that held against you? Don't you think that that penalty is going to be more than if they find out you were playing a game?
You have to have a lot more going on there than you're telling us if you're taking all these steps to hide your internet history or if you play games.
It doesn't matter if you use external proxies or erase your locally stored internet history. If you are going through their gateway to get to the other proxy... they can still see what you're doing.
There are plenty of companies out there who destroy data. Like computer recycling places. Call and find out their policy and procedure for data destruction.
Some proxy apps like JAP use a mixman like encryption scheme to help you be safe against the "If you are going through their gateway to get to the other proxy... they can still see what you're doing." part..
Since we are aiding and abedding allready :)
No my activity is pretty much that, NOTHING! That's just the way our manager is. He micro manages and if anything tries to justify his job by holding anything against us. Internet activity, well lets just say that they have a hardware filter utility that to them they feel is bulletproof and nothing can get through them and assume that everything they want blocked is blocked.
As for the harddrive, I work in the IS department and know for a fact that I can justify why a drive would just die. After all, hardware isn't 100% failsafe right?
Quote:
Like I said, I don't want any excuse to be held against me. Which means that if I have to kill a hard drive to protect it, I will.
Maybe it is just me, but if I was so worried about losing my job because of my boss finding dirt on me I would not be going to a public website and announcing the fact that I want to destroy company equipment. You've already done enough to show that you have every intention of destroying their property if you feel you have to. So if I were your boss and I knew that, I would fire you for that alone... Not to mention that if they were to find you actually followed through on your plans, build a wiper device, but never actually destroyed anything that you are guilty of conspiracy to destroy private property.
I really think you need to go find a new job or stop complaining about your current job to us.
Here is an article that was just on CNN a few days ago. Perhaps you should read it as I think it applies to you- http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/26/comm...hadi/index.htm