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Secure deletion myths, issues, and solutions

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper has three goals. (1) We try to debunk several held misconceptions about secure deletion: that encryption is an ideal solution for everybody, that existing data-overwriting tools work well, and that securely deleted files must be overwritten many times. (2) We discuss new and important issues that are often neglected: secure deletion consistency in case of power failures, handling versioning and journalling file systems, and metadata overwriting. (3) We present two solutions for on-demand secure deletion. First, we have created a highly portable and flexible system that performs only the minimal amount of work in kernel mode. Second, we present two in-kernel solutions in the form of Ext3 file system patches that can perform comprehensive data and metadata overwriting. We evaluated our proposed solutions and discuss the trade-offs involved.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Second ACM International Workshop on Storage Security and Survivability, StorageSS'06. Co-located with the 13th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'06
Pages61-66
Number of pages6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006
Event2nd ACM International Workshop on Storage Security and Survivability, StorageSS'06. Co-located with the 13th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'06 - Alexandria, VA, United States
Duration: Oct 30 2006Oct 30 2006

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Second ACM International Workshop on Storage Security and Survivability, Storage SS'06. Co-located with the 13th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'06

Conference

Conference2nd ACM International Workshop on Storage Security and Survivability, StorageSS'06. Co-located with the 13th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, CCS'06
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAlexandria, VA
Period10/30/0610/30/06

Keywords

  • File systems
  • Secure deletion
  • Security
  • Unintended data recovery

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