I used ccleaner to wipe the free space from my hard disc, which has about 75 GB free. I used the 7 pass overwrite and this it only took 54 minutes. I read that this is supposed to take a long time, so I want to make sure that I am not messing up with the settings or anything. Could wiping free space from the entire drive actually be that quick?
I bet your poor disk cringes when you approach with another WFS gleam in your eye. There's no option to do a half wipe or whatever so I would have to assume that your latest wipe finished satisfactorily. It might be better to assimilate the comments from your previous topics.
Basically what happened is that during my porn browsing, I ended up on a really sketchy website and I am paranoid that there may have been illegal images on there. I want to make sure all traces of the cache files from that browsing session are gone just in case my computer is ever put under forensic analysis.
Basically what happened is that during my porn browsing, I ended up on a really sketchy website and I am paranoid that there may have been illegal images on there. I want to make sure all traces of the cache files from that browsing session are gone just in case my computer is ever put under forensic analysis.
Nothing can stop forensic analyses (given the hypothesis that they have unlimited time and resources to chase down your "accidental crime", they don't but that's neither here nor there) except physical destruction of the drive
I'm not sure, I've read that it is nearly impossible to recover data after a 7 pass overwrite but also read that forensics can still recover it. Not sure which one of those is correct. However, I've even read somewhere that overwriting with 7 passes is actually better than physical destruction of the drive...
nothing is better than leaving the drive in a bucket of sea water for a month !
physically destroying data has to be better than electronically destroying it.
but if you are worried about 'traces', why not start the browser in private mode and stop the stuff being saved to your PC in the first place?
This thread is amazing; no 'my sister's boyfriend's brother was looking at sketchy stuff,' just straight to the point.
But seriously, as Nergal said; you're fine. In order to be convicted of a "looking at bad pictures" crime the authorities need to prove the legal principle of Mens rea; which simply put, is the intention to actually commit a crime. Law enforcement agencies lack the resources to investigate every accidental browser click or popup, so the majority of cases are ignored unless intent can be proved easily.
As for overwriting the drive; the best recovery tools can restore data if you do one overwrite pass or 35. The worst recovery tools can't restore data from one overwrite, let alone 35. Taking that into account, any overwriting process beyond a single pass is largely superfluous. The only method effective against all recovery tools is physical destruction of the drive.
mta's sea water idea is nice, but I've always been fond of fire. So many choices, so few illegal activities!
Just use private browsing next time.
I have to admit, in my youth, looking at adult sites (and even now as a healthy western male with needs) I ALWAYS went to known safe sites and even if I accidentally went somewhere bad my browser was
a) not my main browser, nor even installed on the pc (portable)
was loaded with tons of additional protections (noscript, Cookie Killers, adblocking to the gills and more)
This was before privacy built into the browser but i'd still do that
When you absolutely, positively, have to get that nasty old porn off your hard drive, you need a JBF 54/60 .... and a good pair of safety glasses:
Seven passes through that machine should be more that adequate.
I've read that 7 passes is enough by NSA standards. Would the NSA really adopt that policy if data could still be recovered?
The same NSA that purposely weakens encryption standards so they can hack them with less effort?
Standards' names were given years (decades) ago and don't really stand up to today's abilities
I've read that 7 passes is enough by NSA standards.
You've also read that one pass is sufficient. There's no known example - that I'm aware of - of any overwritten data being recovered in the history of computing no matter how many or how few passes. Multiple pass overwrites are software's Chicken Licken.
Furthermore, any write to a particular sector at any time is equivalent to an overwrite pass. This means that prior writes, as you would find as you use a disk, count in the overwrite sequence. If a sector has had say, six previous writes, and the data is then overwritten once, it is equivalent to a seven-pass overwrite. There is no memory or order to writes, just a magnetic pattern as it exists now.
There may well be all sorts of things left after CC's wipe. Page and hiber files, transaction logs, shadow copies, remapped sectors, and on and on. Would I worry? No. I've had some peculiar stuff on my pc over the years and I'm not bothered. I don't wipe free space either.