[ale] Data not safe on ssds

Geoffrey Myers lists at serioustechnology.com
Wed Mar 2 07:23:58 EST 2011


Stephen R. Blevins wrote:
> Greg,
>      Is this the kind of paper you had in mind?  I got it from a SANS 
> NewsBite article.
> 
> http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/users/swanson/papers/Fast2011SecErase.pdf

There was an interesting article on slashdot about this subject that was 
contrary to the previous article I posted.  So, which way is it?

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/03/01/1740240/SSDs-Cause-Crisis-For-Digital-Forensics

At the end of the summary paragraph on /., the writer says:

So either SSDs are really hard to erase, or really hard to recover. I'm 
so confused.

> 
> Stephen R. Blevins
> stephen.r.blevins at gmail.com
> 
> On 02/22/2011 11:55 AM, Greg Freemyer wrote:
>> Jim,
>>
>> Did your colleague generate a paper?  Is it available to the public?
>>
>> I'm trying to collect docs like that.
>>
>> FYI: I talked to Scott Moultan in Kennesaw.  I guess he's the
>> unofficial Atlanta guru on data recovery from damaged media.  He
>> agrees with your colleague, but I don't think he's published anything
>> about it.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Greg
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Jim Kinney<jim.kinney at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>> A colleague did a funded research project a while back on the data
>>> retention and retrieval methods for erased media. Erasing methods
>>> included government high security methods (bazillion writes of
>>> specialized fields, etc). According to him, SSDs can't be erased fully
>>> by any current technology. The only acceptable way to ensure data
>>> destruction is to grind the chips to dust and incinerate the dust.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 6:12 PM, Greg Freemyer<greg.freemyer at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>>> I'm looking at the list of tools they used on the chart and I don't
>>>> see thermite, hammer, car, etc.   What's up with that?
>>>>
>>>> Given how bad the ones they tested did, I really do think they should
>>>> have included an array of physical solutions.
>>>>
>>>> ie. How does running the thumb drive over it with a car work?  What
>>>> about a 12-ounce hammer? etc.?
>>>>
>>>> fyi: I got one in for recovery last year that appeared to have been
>>>> put in a microwave.  Assuming that's what happened, it worked really
>>>> well.  We de-soldered the chips to try and directly access the NAND
>>>> chips.  Nada.  Not that I expected it to work, but we really wanted to
>>>> know more about that thumb drive.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Greg
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 8:15 AM, Geoffrey Myers
>>>> <lists at serioustechnology.com>  wrote:
>>>>> Interesting article:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/02/17/1911217/Confidential-Data-Not-Safe-On-Solid-State-Disks
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Later, Geoffrey
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Greg Freemyer
>>>> Head of EDD Tape Extraction and Processing team
>>>> Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
>>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
>>>> CNN/TruTV Aired Forensic Imaging Demo -
>>>>     http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/23/how-computer-evidence-gets-retrieved/
>>>>
>>>> The Norcross Group
>>>> The Intersection of Evidence&  Technology
>>>> http://www.norcrossgroup.com
>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> --
>>> James P. Kinney III
>>> I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
>>>
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>>
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-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent
the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson


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