Last week, I wrote an article on proper hard drive sterilization and as promised I’m going to follow up today with an article on how to digitally shred individual files. Let me first start off by saying this. If you’re some type of cyber criminal and you’re reading this in hopes of destroying evidence, you may as well just stop now and save yourself some time. If you’re at the point where you need to shred your digital evidence to hide something, you’re probably already screwed. Not only that, but if you were to be investigated for some sort of computer crime, investigators will likely realize that you have used data shredding technologies and that is almost as good as admitting your guilt. With that said, who should read this? Well, anyone who may have important documents or files taking up space that are no longer needed. Maybe you have old business records or something of that nature that you no longer need and can legitimately erase. If you fall into this category, keep reading!
There are plenty of data shredding applications available for download, some free, some shareware. I’ll give you a brief overview of one of each (both of which, I have tried). Before I get to that though, it’s important to understand what makes a good data shredding application…good. One of the most important parts of data shredding technologies are the algorithms that they use to overwrite (shred) your data. These algorithms are based off of standards that are used within the Department of Defense, NSA and other top government agencies. Therefore, when looking for a data shredding application, you will want to keep your eyes pealed for mention of standards like DoD-5220.22-M or Gutmann. Basically what these algorithms do is use different patterns to overwrite the data your planning to shred, x number of times with completely random data. This makes it extremely difficult to almost impossible to recover (unless you have a lot of money, equipment, time or all three at your disposal). So, lets take a look at some of these programs.
The first one is a program called ”Eraser”. Eraser is a freeware application dubbed as “an advanced security tool, which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.” This application includes two versions of the popular D0D algorithm along with the Gutmann algorithm and a one-pass option that will pattern your old data with only one layer of random information (this is for a quick erase, and isn’t as secure). One nice feature about Eraser is the fact that it adds two options to your context menu that will allow you to quickly click on a file and select to erase it securely. Once you select this, it will prompt you to erase the file, and present you with other available options, such as a choice as to which algorithm you would like to use. Eraser even gives you the option to create your own algorithm if you would like. This is a feature that you likely will not find in some of the bigger commercial products (such as the next one that I will talk about).
The next application is one by popular company Webroot. Webroot has a few programs available for purchase, notable ones include SpySweeper and Window Washer. I’ll be talking about Window Washer. This program is more inclusive and does a lot more than just your standard data shredding. The newest version of Window Washer includes the ability to wipe data from over 470 third party applications, erase your Internet tracks, schedule computer cleanings and more. These features all make for a very handy, very robust program. The downside is the cost. Window Washer will set you back by about $30. This is not too bad however, considering all of the included features. Window Washer will also give you the handy context menu options, like Eraser does. Naturally Window Washer also uses the normal shredding algorithms including the DoD and Gutmann algorithms.
Obviously these are just a couple of applications available for data shredding. There would not be enough space here for me to list all of them. Plenty more can be found by just searching Google for data shredding or similar terms. As a final note, it is important to understand that just because you have these programs installed does not mean that you are securely erasing your data (using the delete key or delete context menu option still only sends your files to the recycle bin). If you use these programs, and you wish to erase something securely, you must actually select that option when you go to erase the file! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment!
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