http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5030814.stm

The site where all of this went down:

http://www.amirtofangsazan.blogspot.com/

PWNT.

5/31/2006 2:09:46 PM

This is why I always keep my porn on an external HD. I sold my laptop and didnot have to worry about such issues. Of course, I wasn't taking pictures of women's legs on a subway either. I don't understand the point behind humilating him like that. So what he likes women's legs? So do I. People do the cruelest things for no reason whatsoever.

5/31/2006 2:21:00 PM

Quote :

"There are also pictures of the teenager with a bare chest, sporting a drawn-on moustache and devil's horns, kissing a girl. "

ohdear!


kissing a girl!!!!

this cannot stand! ban the internets!

5/31/2006 2:22:16 PM

Quote :

"I don't understand the point behind humilating him like that. So what he likes women's legs? So do I. People do the cruelest things for no reason whatsoever."

I think this is more about publicity. (aka attention whore)

This eBay purchase got him international attention. The previous owner of the laptop was just a victim of this, but he should have taken steps to wipe the HDD first.

5/31/2006 2:25:25 PM

Quote :

"People do the cruelest things for no reason whatsoever."

Uhh... he sold a broken laptop as working, i don't think that qualifies as "no reason whatsoever."

5/31/2006 2:40:36 PM

Quote :

"for no reason whatsoever"

did you read the page? there's nothing worse than someone waiting a month to send you something you won on ebay and then it turns out ot be broken. he deserved it.

the only question is, is that really the person who sold the laptop?

5/31/2006 4:12:00 PM

^ both good points.

The BBC site seems to allude to the fact that it was his though.

5/31/2006 4:20:04 PM

Anybody have a link to the original MIT study on this?

5/31/2006 4:37:00 PM

Quote :

"did you read the page? there's nothing worse than someone waiting a month to send you something you won on ebay and then it turns out ot be broken. he deserved it."

So waiting a month to send someone a broken item is worthy of worldwide humilation? If it was me, sure I would have been upset, but I'm not going to go though such lengths to humilate the guy especially since he shares a particular "interest" of mine.

5/31/2006 4:44:52 PM

and if he says he wont refund your money?

5/31/2006 5:11:34 PM

^^ gay pr0n?






haha sorry, had to.

5/31/2006 5:37:23 PM

Quote :

"So waiting a month to send someone a broken item is worthy of worldwide humilation?"

Yes.

5/31/2006 6:17:22 PM

Agreeing with Kiljadn.

5/31/2006 6:28:04 PM

Agreeing with Kiljadn.

5/31/2006 8:57:44 PM

if you're doing something and taking pictures of it, you shouldn't be embarrased

5/31/2006 9:07:39 PM

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and say if you defraud me I'm going to not particularly care if you're publicly humiliated by embarrasing photos you sent to me while you were defrauding me.

5/31/2006 9:14:50 PM

Agreeing with Kiljadn.

5/31/2006 9:21:46 PM

Another story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/wlwt/20060601/lo_wlwt/9303216

Quote :

"A year ago, Henry and Roma Gerbus took their computer to Best Buy in Springfield Township to have its hard drive replaced. Henry Gerbus said Best Buy assured him the computer's old hard drive -- loaded with personal information -- would be destroyed. "They said rest assured. They drill holes in it so it's useless," said Gerbus. A few months ago, Gerbus got a phone call from a man in Chicago. "He said, 'My name is Ed. I just bought your hard drive for $25 at a flea market in Chicago,'" said Gerbus."

[Edited on June 1, 2006 at 2:04 PM. Reason : +b]

6/1/2006 2:01:16 PM

Quote :

"rest assured. They drill holes in it so it's useless,"

Useless, but not unprotected. I'd be curios how many retail companies have policies which they enforce for securely wiping their hard drives.

6/1/2006 5:45:39 PM

from here on out, whenever i buy a hard drive, im gonna try and undelete/restore it to see what kinda juicy shit i can find

6/1/2006 7:11:31 PM

i killdisk mine when i resell them...not that i have anything on them that i'm worried about, but i don't even want people seeing my old school papers...there are too many nutjobs out there

6/1/2006 7:52:32 PM

you do realize most driver erasing programs dont really do shit.

Unless its DOD certified, it's a complete waste of time.

6/1/2006 7:57:49 PM

well which ones are DOD certified then

6/1/2006 8:21:15 PM

these are specifically

CyberScrub's cyberCide: http://www.cyberscrub.com/ (~$36)
DBAN: Darik's Boot and Nuke: http://dban.sourceforge.net/ (free)
Eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ (free)
WhiteCanyon's WipeDrive: http://www.whitecanyon.com/ (~$40)

But you can check any software, see if it complies to DoD 5220.22-M standards.

6/1/2006 8:26:12 PM

wrd.

6/1/2006 8:29:56 PM

nm, i used to use killdisk, i used dban last time (i know this sounds like a pathetic attempt to sound like i know what i'm talking about, but i really HAVE been using dban recently )

6/1/2006 8:34:35 PM

No sweat man, not trying to call you out or anything, just a word to the wise that not all "disk wipers" are created equal.

6/1/2006 9:04:44 PM

If you hold a magnet near it does it delete everything?

6/5/2006 5:58:26 PM

Err, I think Noen's suggestions would be more effective. Unless you're using an AC degausser you're not really going to ensure that you'll completely erase everything. Just holding a strongish magnet next to the drive won't cut it. I mean, the drives have fairly strong rare earth magnets in them anyways.

[Edited on June 5, 2006 at 6:28 PM. Reason : ]

6/5/2006 6:24:07 PM

Quote :

"If you hold a magnet near it does it delete everything?"

Hard disks already have magnets in them to handle induction as well as parking the drive head.

As Charybdisjim pointed out - you are going to have to do a lot better than holding it near a magnet.

6/5/2006 6:29:22 PM

I would smash it or something. Maybe use a power tool.

6/5/2006 6:30:55 PM

Haha, you just want to be destructive don't you? You could always take out an old microwave and harddrive in one firey scene if you wanted to...

6/5/2006 6:32:48 PM

If the drive is large enough to be resold then using a DoD tool is a perfectly safe way to destroy old data.

You should only resort to physical destruction if:

- The drive mechanism has failed.
- You are in a hurry.
- The drive doesn't have any value outside of the data that is on it.
- You really want to destroy a drive.

Needlessly destroying a drive could be like throwing money away even if it is $5-$10.

6/5/2006 6:34:30 PM

Quote :

"- You really want to destroy a drive."

6/5/2006 6:48:28 PM

Thermite (mix powdered alumminum and powdered iron oxide and light with something fairly long...) I'd suggest using a magnesium strip coiled around the end of a fire-poker and just piling some of the thermite mixture on the drive. The magnesium itself is pretty hard to ignite though and you'll still want something really hot to get that going. Don't wad up too much magnesium either or you'll have one extremely bright and hot fire at the end of your poker. You could also try to use the magnesium strip as a fuse I guess, but that's not as reliable as holding a magnesium fire into the pile of thermite. Arch welder would probably ignite it to, but you'd probably end up destroying the welder.

Err, one more thing, just so you know (and I don't end up getting sued), this would be a very very dumb thing to do. It'd probably also be pretty cool, but just realize that you can't put a thermite fire out. Once it gets going and some of the powdered aluminum is liquified, you could fully submerge it and it'd still burn until seperated enough so that the ignited portions burned themselves out without being able to continue the reaction. Once again, this would be very dumb.

[Edited on June 5, 2006 at 7:01 PM. Reason : ]

6/5/2006 6:52:23 PM

I don't sell anything I've had digital information on that I don't want people to see. I've taken a computer forensics class, and trust me, the best way to deal with it is to get rid of it like the mafia does a body.

6/5/2006 7:18:42 PM

And if the mafia used thermite, CSI would be a lot more boring.

6/5/2006 7:38:32 PM

I visited Records Management where I'm at, and they had a pretty impressive facility. They had a nice looking degausser ... 3 times on each side and the data is prety much cooked. I'll take a wild stab and say NCSU Surplus and/or Records Management (whatever they call it) has a similar setup with a degausser of some sort.

6/6/2006 6:31:47 AM

With the number of machines they sell a bulk degausser would make sense. Anyone know what they do and how much data they leave on surplus machines?

6/6/2006 10:33:50 AM

i have an 18" AC degaussing coil...think that would wipe it? (serious question)

6/7/2006 9:31:09 AM

Probably? I don't know, DBAN is still the way I'd go.

6/7/2006 5:35:19 PM

i tried out dban...i was hoping it might have an option for wiping disks while in windows, but it didn't...i went with eraser (had a laptop hd hooked up via usb)

6/7/2006 5:49:06 PM

Quote :

"Err, one more thing, just so you know (and I don't end up getting sued), this would be a very very dumb thing to do. It'd probably also be pretty cool, but just realize that you can't put a thermite fire out. Once it gets going and some of the powdered aluminum is liquified, you could fully submerge it and it'd still burn until seperated enough so that the ignited portions burned themselves out without being able to continue the reaction. Once again, this would be very dumb. "

you cant put it out because the iron oxide seperates so you have all this oxygen just chilling there and then it combines with the aluminium, it is a self sustaining reaction

if you poured water on a thermite fire, it would instantly turn to steam

6/7/2006 5:58:51 PM

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=97378

Hehe, some high tech magnetic wiping.

Quote :

"To create a magnetic field strong enough to penetrate the metal housing around a disk drive and erase the magnetic media inside, the researchers designed a neodymium iron-boron magnet with special pole pieces made of esoteric cobalt alloys. A motorized mechanism pushed disk drives past the magnets; a back up twist-knob allows operators to manually pull drives through the magnetic field."

Sexy right?

Quote :

"you cant put it out because the iron oxide seperates so you have all this oxygen just chilling there and then it combines with the aluminium, it is a self sustaining reaction if you poured water on a thermite fire, it would instantly turn to steam "

Not true. If you have a pile of thermite and only the center is ignited, water will still be able to seperate the non-liquified portions. It will not imediately extinguish the reaction but seperate it from additional fuel. It will also not disolve the materials, I'm not suggesting this. Simply submerging thermite will have no effect. I was thinking more of a turbulent stream of water from a hose or something. Once the aluminum is liquified (it will liquify well outsite the ignited fuel regions) it will prevent the iron oxide and fuel from being dispersed to some extent. Water is still not a good way to control or extinguish a thermite fire though, since any liquified portions will continue to burn until there is no more fuel to continue to reaction. This means that although large amounts of water may prevent remaining thermite from igniting, you'll probably just end up spreading the already liquified portions onto other flammable materials or people.

[Edited on June 17, 2006 at 2:46 PM. Reason : ]

6/17/2006 2:39:13 PM