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kill switch

 high voltage for a real wipe
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Store a powerful charge in a UPS-like device. Attach it to a coil around your hard drive (or your entire box if you're paranoid) and attach a kill switch. When they come knocking, break the glass covering and push the red button. complete, instant elimination of evidence! You may also need the CD Nuke option, which consists of a single-use microwave oven.
—Voice, Aug 14 2006

Peter Gutmann: Secure Deletion of Data (1996) http://www.cs.auckl...ubs/secure_del.html
from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory [jutta, Aug 14 2006]

A New Technique to Quickly Erase Hard Drives http://it.slashdot....id=06/06/17/1521200
slashdot discussion [xaviergisz, Aug 14 2006]

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       Easy as it is to accidentally wipe a hard drive, I hear it's quite hard to do it reliably on purpose. (See link for one paper on the finer points.) The military must have this problem to various degrees - what do they use?
—jutta, Aug 14 2006
   

       Sledgehammer, then a pestle and mortar?
—david_scothern, Aug 14 2006
   

       Cauldron of boiling magma?   

       <aside> Does magma boil? <aside>
—Canuck, Aug 14 2006
   

       M-16, full auto, full clip into the computer.   

       Problem is that soldiers tend to fire into the MONITOR, rather than the main unit.   

       For lap tops its more effective. Trashcan, thermite grenade.
—Galbinus_Caeli, Aug 14 2006
   

       //what do they use?//   

       A triple erasure pattern (which is possibly insufficient), then they are irradiated and stored in a secure, guarded facility... forever, just in case...
—Shz, Aug 14 2006
   

       Securely erasing a hard drive is only hard if you want to use it afterwards. Otherwise sandpapering the platters should be OK.
—hippo, Aug 14 2006
   

       //what do they use?//
Do you really want to know? THEY tell the lesser Them to remove everything from the disk (usually just by placing it in the "Recycling Bin"), then They sell the gear to a second-hand dealer who E-Bays the whole lot piecemeal.		   

       Alternatively, They place a white, yellow and red sticker on it saying "Confidential" and pile the gear in the corner of the cubicle.
—methinksnot, Aug 15 2006
   

       //The military must have this problem to various degrees - what do they use//   

       I think the platters are magnetized numerous times then the Metal coating is ground off the discs(which are Glass) and then the resulting powder is magnetized then put in a vial and put in a big safe somewhere.
—jhomrighaus, Aug 15 2006
   

       That sounds thorough. I still think my methodology is closer to what really happens.
—methinksnot, Aug 15 2006
   

       grind up the platters and use them as flack.
—tcarson, Aug 15 2006
   

       Pull!
—silverstormer, Aug 15 2006
   


 

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