Hi all,
I am new to Eraser and looking for someone to sanity check a strategy I am looking to implement.
Essentially, I have some files on a USB that I would like to permanently delete (so that they are unrecoverable), and ideally leave no trace of them ever being there (including file names that could give away some information). These are sensitive personal documents that I had mistakenly saved to a business USB, which I now need to hand back.
I know lots of information exists on these forums but I was struggling to make sense of all of it, and some of it was also historic and therefore I couldn't be sure it was current best practice.
My thoughts are as follows (for example file 'A', a word document).;
1. Open file 'A' from USB, delete it's contents and save
2. Rename to 'B'
3. Open again, add a password encryption (further layer of security in case of recoverability) and save
4. Rename to 'C'
5. Use Eraser software to permanently delete file 'C' (3 pass overwrite - could consider more if necessary)
6. Use Eraser software to delete free space on USB
7. Save several new, large, non-sensitive files to USB (to take up some of the newly free disk space)
8. Securely delete these files and perform a second delete free space operation
Please let me know if anyone has any thoughts or comments on the above - I am a complete novice in this area but I do need to be sure that the files I am shredding can't be recovered.
Look forward to people's thoughts here.
Many thanks,
Chris
I am new to Eraser and looking for someone to sanity check a strategy I am looking to implement.
Essentially, I have some files on a USB that I would like to permanently delete (so that they are unrecoverable), and ideally leave no trace of them ever being there (including file names that could give away some information). These are sensitive personal documents that I had mistakenly saved to a business USB, which I now need to hand back.
I know lots of information exists on these forums but I was struggling to make sense of all of it, and some of it was also historic and therefore I couldn't be sure it was current best practice.
My thoughts are as follows (for example file 'A', a word document).;
1. Open file 'A' from USB, delete it's contents and save
2. Rename to 'B'
3. Open again, add a password encryption (further layer of security in case of recoverability) and save
4. Rename to 'C'
5. Use Eraser software to permanently delete file 'C' (3 pass overwrite - could consider more if necessary)
6. Use Eraser software to delete free space on USB
7. Save several new, large, non-sensitive files to USB (to take up some of the newly free disk space)
8. Securely delete these files and perform a second delete free space operation
Please let me know if anyone has any thoughts or comments on the above - I am a complete novice in this area but I do need to be sure that the files I am shredding can't be recovered.
Look forward to people's thoughts here.
Many thanks,
Chris