> How can hard disks be made completely unreadable short of physical
> destruction? Does not repartitioning just destroy some areas of the
disk?
Repartitioning a disk can be done in a number of ways, some of which will
cause areas of the disk to be unreadable via conventional means. However
there are utilities which can look at the disk and recover information.
Reformatting all partitions by use of the operating system generally causes
the whole disk to be completely unreadable.
> So to be effective would not the law have to require the electronic
> equivalent of a paper shredder?
Maybe - and they exist - simply a strong electromagnet! Exposure to such a
device will wipe absolutely all information physically, and make it
unrecoverable. But the cheapest, simplest and best solution to this problem
is provided by software: a security disk "shredder" overwrites all the data
several times with junk. This is acceptable even in military environments.
Hope this helps.
Tim Wright
Information Security Manager
Fuji Bank, London
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