1mo ago

ShredOS - A small Linux distribution to erase your traces

github.com GitHub - PartialVolume/shredos.x86_64: Shredos Disk Eraser 64 bit for all Intel 64 bit processors as well as processors from AMD and other vendors which make compatible 64 bit chips. ShredOS - Secure disk erasure/wipe

Shredos Disk Eraser 64 bit for all Intel 64 bit processors as well as processors from AMD and other vendors which make compatible 64 bit chips. ShredOS - Secure disk erasure/wipe - PartialVolume/sh...

GitHub - PartialVolume/shredos.x86_64: Shredos Disk Eraser 64 bit for all Intel 64 bit processors as well as processors from AMD and other vendors which make compatible 64 bit chips. ShredOS - Secure disk erasure/wipe

ShredOS is a USB bootable (BIOS or UEFI) small linux distribution with the sole purpose of securely erasing the entire contents of your disks using the program nwipe.

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9 comments

Back when I used to work for others, I would always remove the disk drive and replace it with an identical uet fresh out of the box one and a fresh Windows install. A few hundred dollars and a little work is a small price to pay.
- That's not worth the price at all. There is really no risk
  
  Freelancers take about 100$ pee hour where I live. (and thats a low rate, usually it's more)
  Whith theoretical possibilities like https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.10192v1 you still have to do multiple passes, which takes hours, even on an NVME.
  Even running something like https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10446654 takes more than an hour.
  A new 1TB nvme can be had for 60$ on amazon. Swapping it takes 5 minutes. So unless the client pays for the time, it is not worth it.
  
  When I worked in an IT office, we often had multiple erase and clone processes going at the same time. We used machines like this: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Bay-eSATA-SATA-Standalone/dp/B005CQ12W2 (First search result). We started the process and worked on other stuff. We had a flat fee of €40 or something for a HDD to SSD upgrade (clone + erase + installation). The actual work was 15-20 minutes.
  Nobody is wasting actual time when you can just have the process going when doing other stuff.
  
  I agree that it is worth it at scale, but for a freelancer it won't make much financial difference getting a new drive after a project.
  
  GDPR laws are a big part of it. It's illegal to not protect the privacy of your customers. We even shipped the erased disks to a specialized company.
  But also, the only way for this whole "just get them a new disk" to be profitable is if you resell the old disks as new disks. Which just sounds like evil capitalism to me.
  
  I don't think we are arguing about the same scenario at all.
  Here is an example of what I have in mind:
  I work as a freelancer on a customers project.
  In my computer I have an 128G NVME (15$) which is seperate from my OS where I put the data the customer entrusted me with and the project files
  After the project, I take that NVME out, put it in a box on a shelf and buy a new one (15$) for the next project
  Some time after project completion, I can either trash the drives or send them in bulk to some data erasure service, or leave them on my shelf for ever.
  As opposed to
  After the project, I take that NVME-1 out, put it in a box on a shelf and buy a new one for the next project (NVME-2)
  for the project after that, I again take out NVME-2 and put it on a sheld, I get NVME-1 from my shelf, put it in, run secure erase for multiple hours before I can start working on the next project.
  My argument is, that the cost of the first process is negligible compared to the effort and hassle of the second process, for a freelancer that earns over 6x the cost of such drive per hour.
  
  My scenario was indeed handling the drives of customers themselves.
  For your scenario I would just use some encrypted filesystem.

9 comments