Re: More snake oil: ENIGMA

[attila@primenet.com]

In <v02140b07aeaed1f1f746@[10.0.2.15]>, on 11/12/96 
   at 05:20 PM, azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear) said:

.  Attila said:
.
.>        I wonder if anyone told them the data recovery teams can pull
.>    multiple layers of data off a disc after it has been stripped?

.I've often wondered how effective disk encryption programs, like DiskCrypt,
.are at hiding data from a Class III adversary (e.g., NSA).  These programs
.offer a means of 'cleaning' the data and directory space using randomized
.patterns applied one or more times, but this might be insufficient for
.removing data written slightly off-track by a previous write cycle.
.
        I don't have any direct experience with 'serious' error 
    recovery either; however, over a few years span listening to some
    my friends who have not come in from the cold,  I received the
    very definite reading the key is a differential measurement on flux
    and organization which expands the 'hearing' range exponentially
    -even if it is multiple destructive formatting.

        I written software programs for C2 and B1 clearance, including
    primitives which wiped as they went.  I used a pattern which 
    shifted and repeated itself --not too ridiculous on unix if you are
    using type 2 read/write primitives.  messy? yes, in its own simple
    way.

        The software was certified by multiple fairly sensitive regula- 
    tory agencies, plus the usual few for whom there is no name. you
    don't expect, and you do not receive, anything more than a yes/no.
    but it was in these circumstances I 'heard' the comments on recovery.

        and their ability to measure that differential gets better 
    every year!   No, I do not consider 'erased' disks safe from a
    determined federal agency.  I keep sensitive stuff on zip drives
    which are removable, and easily crippled forever.  that and our
    principal [a]vocation: stronger cryptography than the hardware can
    bruteforce or trick.

--
    Cyberspace and Information are Freedom!  
        FUCK your WIPO, too. 
                -attila