Pages

Subscribe Twitter

2007/10/06

File Shredding - Personal Securities


Every time when you press the delete button with the intension to remove some files from your computer, I hope you don’t really that those files are permanently deleted from your computer, at least not yet. Basically these files are only marked as deleted, removed from indexing and not occupying the disk space. They are still accessible (or we call it recoverable) and with certain softwares or the MS-DOS undelete command, they are practically recoverable.

It sounds like a good news as there is a big chance that files are recoverable even if they are deleted, but thinking from another perspective its could be harmful too. What if someone recovers your private files? Especially when you trade your hard disk away, or your colleagues might be using your old computers and manage to recover your old files.

What is File Shredding

File shredding is all about wiping your files from computer, totally and securely so it cannot be restore by any chances. Basically file shredding works by overwriting the particular file over and over again so the original contents gets removed from the hard disk.

wipe-disk-with-file-shredder.com is a site that gives you a pretty good idea about file shredder. The personal privacy vocabulary consist of terms like Wipe Disk, File Shredder, Number of Passes, etc that helps giving you more in-depth into the whole concept.

The website also listed some good application for file shredding that comes with description, prices as well as direct link to the developer site. So if you are concern about personal security and privacy over hard disk migration, its time to act now.

Reason to perform file shredding

Most of us delete files because we do not need them anymore, but a lot time we also perform deletion because we do not want others to access them. When you deal with sensitive information, file wiping is definitely useful.

The typical delete function only clear the linking to the specific file, leaving the actual content still intact on the physical medium. That could be extremely dangerous as recovery and duplication of them are still possible. Government bodies, hospital or private sectors that deals with highly confidential information on their clients/partners are amongst who cannot afford to have their information leaked out. You will expect them to go through some strict procedures of file shredding and wiping.

Normal end users might not see this as something too important but still your privacy may be invaded if deleted files are not handled properly. Don’t be too surprised if files you deleted appear on another person’s archive.

0 Comment: