Re: Erasing Disks

[frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)]

N.B. Your disagreement is with Peter's paper, not me unless I have
inadvertently misrepresented what he wrote.

At  2:15 AM 9/14/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:
>I disagree.  The methods for declassification in the Army and
>Defense Department security manuals included several approaches:
>1) Physical destruction - acid, sandblasters, etc.
>2) NSA-Approved Whopping Big Magnets

I think Peter was looking for non-destructive methods which would allow
continued use of the hard disk
>3) NSA-Approved Hopefully-Bugfree computer programs for some computers.
>
>The most secure methods were the unclassified ones - after we
>sandblasted our RM05 disk packs, the NSA and KGB can't read anything.
>The less secure methods are the ones that require NSA approval -
>how strong  is a Whopping Big Magnet this year?  (Too strong to put 
>near MY computer lab, thank you! :-)

Peter thinks this strength is to strong for practical application.  He
describes someone who had a strong enough research magnet which bent the
platters.  Since erasing the clocking tracks requires them to be rewritten
at the factory, magnets do not allow reuse of hard disks.

>But shredding the floppy?  No need to classify that, no secrets leaked

Burn after shredding, or you have a puzzle fan reassembling the shredded disk.

Hastily, but with regards - Bill


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