Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
So, recently someone posed the idea to me that one should be able to set up their hard drive to self destruct, just like in the movies. Having watched one-too-many McGyver episodes, your humble webmaster put Google to task and started doing some "serious" research. This page is nothing more that the reuslts of my 14 hours of obsessive Google searches. Please note that this page IS NOT a "How To" guide to blowing up your computer. In fact, if you try any of these ideas, you stand a rather good chance of blowing your fingers off, elecrtomagnetically neutering yourself, or being arrested as a suspected retard-wacko. That being said, here's a few ideas and comments on the subject.
Again, if you blow your nuts off trying ANY of this, don't blame me.
First off, if your primary interest is to simply remove data from your computer, you would be better off using a file shredder program. These kind of programs are widely available at a rather low cost. As an example:
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Active KillDisk - Hard Disk Drive Eraser: is a security software which destroys data permanently from a computer which can be boot[ed] using a DOS floppy drive. It uses access to the drive’s data on a physical level via BIOS bypassing logical drive structure organization. Regardless of the operating systems, file systems or type of machine, this utility can destroy all data on the storage device(s).
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Hm, interesting. Looks like this would even work if I wanted to wipe YOUR hard drive. I don't even have to log into the computer. Just boot from a floppy and run the software. Neat. But this wasn't nearly as exciting as I was hoping to find. Further searches took me here:
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Hard Drive Wind Chimes: Many people linking this page on their blogs claim that this is a secure way of destroying your hard drive and its sensitive data. It is not completely true! The platters are never used in this HOWTO and could potentially be stolen by ninjas while you're making a wind chime and the data recovered by ninja-hackers. You must (at least) physically destroy the platters if you want to be 100% secure!
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Well, that makes sense to me and anyone with an IQ above 7. For the record, I believe carrots have an IQ of 7. This means that they react to light. So, since their leaves follow the sun, they have an IQ higher that my old supervisor, Bob. But I digress. I also found this on a MicroSloth daughter site:
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Clean the Hard Drive Before Dumping Your PC:
[4] You're Totally Paranoid, so Get Out the Acetylene Torch. I'm not kidding. The only absolute and assured way of protecting your data is to destroy the hard drive. To do that, you need to remove it from the computer. If you want to save the rest of the computer, touch the machine's metal frame before reaching in. Static electricity can wreck the circuitry. Unplug the wires on the hard drive and remove the mounting screws. The hard drive slides out from the back of its holder. The Pentagon shreds its hard drives. That should work, assuming you can find a hard-drive shredder. I've never seen one. You need to destroy the platters inside. Try smashing them with a hammer. Destroying them with a torch should work. Step 4 seems excessive to me. But you're right to be paranoid about this. Identity theft has become overwhelming. Personally, I would use Step 3. I believe in being careful, no matter who gets the computer.
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Wow. Sounds like you'd need to literally burn, bash, or blow the damn thing up to be sure that the data is unrecoverable. Sheesh. OK, so I figure that we could ponder the possibility of installing a Mission Impossible "incindiary device" on the hard drive itself. Seems like a safe thing to search, right? NOT. I got a "holy shit" list of hits on this search, the most interesting being this one:
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Terrorism Information: Incendiary Devices -- Description:
Q: Are these devices considered terrorist weapons? A: Yes, they can be used in terrorist attacks; however, the use of incendiary devices is difficult to classify as terrorism. Incidents are often misidentified as arson, insurance fraud or other non-terrorist criminal activity.
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So, to coin a phrase, "Holy Crap..." Dude, I'm not interested in starting another gulf war for cryin' out loud. I'm just pursuing a fantasy "Mission Impossible" type computer idea, that's all. If I get guys in black helicoptors pounding on my door over this I'm going to be pissed.
On a hunch I looked up more information about this:
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Colorado Bureau of Investication: Possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices - possession of components thereof - chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons - persons exempt - hoaxes.
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Hrm... Ok, there's a small class of people that I actually try NOT to piss off. These guys happen to belong to that class. It appears that these guys take some things a little to damn seriously. But I guess that's good in case "Joe Terrorist" is out there and they can catch him before he hurts someone. Good call guys. I just want to keep my cats from browsing my hard drive while I'm at work so I decided to look elsewhere on my little quest for academic knowlege. No need to aggrivate the big dogs while looking for chihuaua porn.
Interesting theory, but experience dictates that for every software there is an antisoftware or a crack. The ISP will have some kind of mail log, and there is always an IP trace for anything you send. (see following entry) So I looked into Computer Forensics. The best info I found was found at Wikipedia.org. They actually have a brief list of steps to take for recovering data from a computer. Neat.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Computer forensics" Inspect the chassis for traps, intrusion detection mechanisms, and self-destruct mechanisms. It takes a lot to destroy a hard drive to the point where no data at all can be recovered off of it-- but it doesn't take much to make recovery very, very difficult.
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So. What if we tried to Self Destruct a Hard Drive using a magnetic field? Perhaps a degausing coil could do the job...
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Australia Broadcasting says:
The disk itself is made from aluminium or glass. Magnetic recording material is layered over the surface and then polished to a mirror finish.
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Action Front Data Recovery Says:
Degaussing is the use of an external de-magnetizer designed to reduce any magnetic flux recorded on the media. It is accomplished by producing alternating currents to create an Electro magnetic field that will reverse magnetize all fields on the surface.
Degaussing is an acceptable and effective method - however, it is far more appropriate for tape, diskettes, or removable media than it is for fixed hard disk drives.
Hard disk drive platters are mounted within a housing that in itself provide some amount of shielding to prevent a degaussing process from being effective. In our shop, we have exposed fully intact hard disk drives to very high levels of magnetic fields and have seen much or most of the data still intact on the device. The strength of any degaussing unit required to penetrate the Head Disk Assembly (H.D.A.) housing would probably cause considerable damage to any other diskette or magnetic media within several yards, perhaps even in the next room.
For conventional degaussing to be successful with a hard disk, you would have to disassemble the drive and remove the platters. Once physically removed, it's questionable whether the degaussing process would be required.
Also, most of today's hard disk drives rely on magnetically recorded servo-patterns to allow control and movement of the read/write head assembly and the rotation speed of the platters. Any degaussing powerful enough to remove the data would most certainly destroy the servo, effectively rendering the drive non-functional.
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So, if the drive in question was hit with an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to damage the read/write head, it could disable the drive. But a professional with the right tools could possibly recover the data if they were able to remove the plates and put them in another case. An electromagnet powerful enough to also wipe the plates might well also yank the fillings out of your teeth and tear your car keys through your pants pocket at a hundred paces.
Final analysis: If you want the hard drive wiped, check out some Acme Hammers. Wile E. Cyote should be able to help you order one. Otherwise, one might consider the basic .44 Magnum data removal unit...
now I need to saunter off to bed.