Protect Your Data from Glowfriends! (Recovering & Deleting Data)

You should know that when you "delete" a file on your computer in your operating system, whether Linux, Windows or Mac, the file is not really deleted or overwritten until the space is needed for new data. This is beneficial when you accidentally delete a file, but is dangerous when you "delete" a sensitive file and falsely feel like you're safe.

Linux has the command shred which overwrites files with random data, which solves this issue. You can also output /dev/urandom or /dev/zero to blank or distort empty space on a drive.

Even in the case of encrypted drives, it's a good idea to use /dev/urandom or obscure unused or previously used space to prevent metadata leakage about how much you've stored on the drive or what used to be on it, in a way that could tie you to an important USB drive or computer.

00:00 No data's every really gone! 01:49 Gist 03:37 Dangers of File Recovery 04:50 Good Op-sec 05:56 shred to overwrite and delete files 08:09 /dev/urandom and /dev/random 09:44 Blanking or shuffling drives with randomness 11:11 /dev/zero 12:22 Encrypted drives can still leak metadata! 15:01 Retroactively wiping empty space on an encrypted drive 16:12 Benefits and Dangers

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