Welcome to Part Five of this module in this video.
We're going to be taking a look at how to completely and securely wipe a hard drive so that the data
cannot be recovered from it.
Using Derek's boot and nuke it is always a good idea to do this before you get rid of an old computer
simply deleting files.
As you know doesn't really get rid of them.
They can still be recovered using various tools and techniques for that reason it is necessary to repeatedly
overwrite deleted information with pseudo random data.
You might also want to wipe a hard drive any race the partition tables if you want to start over from
scratch with a particular machine.
Remember that when you do this everything gets destroyed and what you are left with is an un formatted
hard drive with no operating system.
From there you'd need to install whatever operating system or systems that you desire.
I make it a personal policy to wipe any used or refurbished machine that I purchase very thoroughly.
After I first made certain that I've written down my Windows product key.
This is because you can never be sure that he used system doesn't have some kind of malware on it.
There is also the fact that you can't be sure what the system was previously used for and should the
authorities ever wished to take a look at it.
You don't want any nasty surprises from the former owner being recovered.
In fact periodically wiping your machine and reinstalling fresh isn't a bad idea from a simple security
perspective.
If your situation allows for it to be convenient the procedure is actually very simple.
We're going to first download Derek's boot and nuke from D band dot org by pressing the download link
and the next we're going to download Rufus from Rufus start I a simple search should bring you here.
I've already gone ahead and done this.
As you can see I should mention that if you have a C.D. burner and a drive on the machine that you're
working with you could burn the DB and ISO twist C.D. and use that instead.
So I've gone ahead and I've inserted a USP device and we're going to launch Rufus.
If you haven't used it before Rufus is pretty straightforward.
Select the U.S. B device that you wish to use from the drag down menu.
Keep in mind that you need to select the right one because whichever device you do end up picking will
be completely wiped.
By this process next you want to make sure that in the second drag down menu under boot selection disk
or iso image is selected.
Once that is done press the select button and go ahead and choose the D band iso image.
Now you do have the option to change the partition scheme from NBER to GP t in case your computer lacks
a legacy boot option or for whatever reason you've chosen not to enable it for this demonstration.
I will be using MPR and embers what she would use with any older system or virtual box.
Once that is done you can leave all of the other options as default and press the start button.
This will of course warn you that all of the data on the device you have chosen is about to be erased.
This should take only a minute because D ban is actually quite a small file.
There we go.
All done.
We can now close Rufus and we'll probably want to inject the USP device until we're actually ready to
use it in this demonstration.
I'll be using virtual box in order to illustrate how this process works.
If you want to follow along and test it for yourself using virtual box you could use the USP device
that you just chose or simply add the DB an image to the drive and click ok and then go ahead and launch
the system.
By the way if you decide to experiment with D ban using virtual box please make sure that you select
a fixed size for the virtual machine that you create 10 gigs or so is really more than enough.
So here we are in D ban if you booted your system using the USP device.
This will be full screen.
I apologize for the rather small aspect ratio that is an artifact of virtual box.
The menu here is pretty self-explanatory.
I recommend against using the auto nuke feature because it is lazy and you may not like it.
Instead press the Enter key DB n is now going to register USP devices.
This can take a few minutes and I've noticed that it can be really slow on older machines particularly
older laptops that use USP 1.0.
Please be patient.
Now this next step is crucial.
We need to select which partitions that we want to wipe.
In this example only one partition is listed.
But if you have multiple partitions you would want to use the arrow keys to move up and down the list
and press the spacebar to designate which partitions you want to wipe.
If you boot from a USP device the device that you use will also be listed.
So make sure that that is not selected unless it is your intention to wipe it.
Once you've selected the partitions that you want to wipe it should say wipe.
Next to them in brackets.
With this being done press the end key to set the method that you want.
DB And to use if you watched any of the prior videos in this module you already know what these options
are but if not I will quickly go over them now.
The more times you overwrite deleted data the harder it is to recover that data.
Forensic experts and hackers with sophisticated tools can usually recover information pretty easily
when it has only been overwritten once or twice.
If all you want to do is delete a partition or partitions and you don't care about security quicker
race is really the option that you want to pick.
It should be just fine.
This is what you should choose.
If you're just fooling around with an old laptop installing different operating systems trying different
encryption schemes and you just want to start over and security isn't a consideration duty short is
considered the default selection.
It is the method used for short wipes by the American Department of Defense and is typically used for
the secure removal of secret data.
This method uses three passes which means it's going to go over any partitions and drives selected and
right random data to them three times.
If you're one of those people who makes it a practice to routinely wipe your computer for security reasons
say every month or so then three passes is probably your best selection.
D 52 20 is the standard WIP used by the American Department of Defense to delete information classified
as top secret.
It will apply seven passes to all partitions and drive selected.
Keep in mind this will take a very long time.
This is the method I would recommend to wipe a computer before selling it.
RCMP is short for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police technical security standard.
You can read about it online and how it differs.
If you care but the only really important thing to note here is that it uses 8 passes instead of 7.
The Gutman wipe will conduct 35 passes.
It takes an extremely long time and it is very hard on your computer.
This is not recommended for solid state hard drives which have a limited number of read rights before
they begin to fail.
I wouldn't use it on EMC.
Flash memory or the like.
Either Guttman is what you select when you want to.
Absolutely and totally wipe out a drive because you're done with it or because it held information that
you need to be very sure is gone forever even if it means potentially harming your drive 35 passes will
take a very very long time.
Finally pure energy stream is suggested for newer machines it will use a random number of rounds between
foreign aid for this demonstration.
I will select the quicker race option when you've made your choice.
Press the space bar then to start the process we just need to press the f 10 key.
Be aware that on some machines you will need to press an additional key.
For example the windows plus f 10 key or the F N plus f 10 key some systems seem to require that you
hold control plus f 10.
If you find that f 10 alone is unresponsive.
Please try these combinations one at a time until you find the one that is applicable for your system.
Now the wiping process has begun.
Remember that this destroys absolutely all data on all the partitions selected including the partition
tables themselves.
If you wipe your whole computer you will be presented with a message telling you that no operating system
is detected when you boot up.
This allows you to install your own OS and setup the partition table however you desire and that is
really about it.
It is possible to use DB band to wipe USP devices only if you were to select the USP device from the
list and make sure that your system partitions are not selected.
This video was included in this module for two reasons.
First if anything goes wrong when you are trying to create hidden encrypted operating systems DB n is
the simplest way to start over from scratch.
Second if you read through the true crypt and very script documentation you will see that pseudo random
data generated by these encryption programs to wipe out their activity is of the same character as that
generated by D.
In other words using DB and periodically or even once when you first get a used computer enhances plausible
deniability.
You can quite honestly say that you used such a program to wipe the driving question and that is why
such random data exists on the drive.
Thank you for your attention.