CentOS - May 2018 - OT: hardware: sanitizing a dead SSD?

James Szinger wrote:
> Disclaimer: My $dayjob is with a government contractor, but I am speaking
> as  private citizen.
>
> Talk to your organization's computer security people.  They will have a
> standard procedure for getting rid of dead disks.  We on the internet
> can't > know what they are.  I'm betting it involves some degree
of
paperwork.
>
> Around here, I give the disks to my local computer support who in turn
> give them the institutional disk destruction team.  I also zero-fill the
disk
> if possible, but that's not an official requirement.  The disk remains
> sensitive until the process is complete.
>
Federal contractor here, too. (I'm the OP). For disks that work, shred or
DBAN is what we use. For dead disks, we do the paperwork, and get them
deGaussed. SSD's are a brand new issue. We haven't had to deal with them
yet, but it's surely coming, so we might as well figure it out now.

      mark

On Wed, 9 May 2018, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> Federal contractor here, too. (I'm the OP). For disks that work, shred
or
> DBAN is what we use. For dead disks, we do the paperwork, and get them
> deGaussed. SSD's are a brand new issue. We haven't had to deal with
them
> yet, but it's surely coming, so we might as well figure it out now.
Does anyone use hdparm's enhanced security erase feature for wiping working
drives?

Sounds more secure than DBAN/shred, and potentially faster too.  It's not
something I've used.

jh

On 9 May 2018 at 11:52, John Hodrien <J.H.Hodrien at leeds.ac.uk>
wrote:
> On Wed, 9 May 2018, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>
>> Federal contractor here, too. (I'm the OP). For disks that work,
shred or
>> DBAN is what we use. For dead disks, we do the paperwork, and get them
>> deGaussed. SSD's are a brand new issue. We haven't had to deal
with them
>> yet, but it's surely coming, so we might as well figure it out now.
>
>
> Does anyone use hdparm's enhanced security erase feature for wiping
working
> drives?
>
> Sounds more secure than DBAN/shred, and potentially faster too.  It's
not
> something I've used.
>
It really depends on if the drive actually does what the commands say
it does. Most modern drives should do the reset/erase of
sectors/cells.. but if the drive manufacturer decides "well we could
short cut this by having it just read every sector as 0 until written"
and you think you have wiped the data, but it is still there for
physical audit. And we have all seen enough dodgy "well this is the
lowest end drive we are losing money on if we sell it.. unless we cut
corners" to know someone somewhere is going to do that. Which then
will make it probably just an additional step everyone has to do.

1. secure wipe drive
2. run dban/shred for 3-4 wipes.
3. fill out paperwork that you did 1 and 2.
4. secure wipe drive
5. send to industrial shredder.

> jh
>
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-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.