[Tfug] Destroying a hard drive

[Bexley Hall]

--- keith smith <klsmith2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> This guys says if you remove the spindle and
> platters your drive will never be recoverable.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx-D1nJcv0k&NR=1
> 
> I watched several of his videos.  Very interesting.

I'm not sure I believe that.  It may not be
"practically recoverable" but I am sure if you had
secrets that the MIB were interested in, they'd
have no problems recovering them!

As with most things, what you want to do is set
the bar high enough to discourage the casual
and opportunistic attacks.  Folks who want to
spend real time / money will find ways around
damn near any scheme you concoct.

E.g., early video games (arcade pieces) went to
great lengths to prevent counterfeiting (asian
firms would clone a game "overnight" and steal
a huge portion of your sales!).  Some of the
techniques (hardware and software) used were
quite innovative.  Almost *all* represented
significant efforts on behalf of the legal
owners of the products (i.e. developers).

A friend (an author of several "big" games from
that period) recounted a talk he had with a "fan".
That fan had systematically, over the course of
months, disassembled and reverse engineered this
one particular game to the point where he could
actually point out each mechanism that had been
introduced to "safeguard" the design.

(clearly a guy with WAY too much time on his hands)




       
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