Question about SSD

Post » Wed Nov 24, 2010 12:52 am

Main problem with SSDs (beyond price) is they are incredibly insecure: Data written to an SSD is virtually impossible to fully delete.


^

Only thing that will fully delete the data off of an SSD would be a sledge hammer and a nice good fire. Read somewhere that SSDs use quantum mechanics in order to erase the data off of them.
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Ella Loapaga
 
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Post » Tue Nov 23, 2010 5:52 pm

It's not an issue *for me* it's an issue *in general*.

I disagree. If you have a SSD with critical data on it you keep it encrypted and destroy it away when you are done with it. If you are unwilling to do this then use another storage medium. It is trivial to recover deleted data from a NTFS file system, yet people still use NTFS. If what you said was true that it was a general issue then people would use a file system that actually deleted the data rather than just returning those blocks to the list of unallocated block.
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Peter P Canning
 
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Post » Wed Nov 24, 2010 1:14 am

I disagree. If you have a SSD with critical data on it you keep it encrypted and destroy it away when you are done with it. If you are unwilling to do this then use another storage medium. It is trivial to recover deleted data from a NTFS file system, yet people still use NTFS. If what you said was true that it was a general issue then people would use a file system that actually deleted the data rather than just returning those blocks to the list of unallocated block.

I go around DBANing computers for friends and families (and work), which wouldn't work with SSDs. Yeah, they don't have the best practices, but that's ok because I can still fix it. The only way I can guarantee to fix it after-the-matter with SSDs is by destroying the thing, which is why I see it as a problem. Everyone is constantly learning good and better practices, but SSDs currently have a hole that blocks their ability to carry them out. Yeah, in an ideal world it wouldn't be an issue, but we don't live in an ideal world, so I see it as an issue definitely in need of being addressed.
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Lily Something
 
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Post » Tue Nov 23, 2010 7:27 pm

I go around DBANing computers for friends and families (and work), which wouldn't work with SSDs. Yeah, they don't have the best practices, but that's ok because I can still fix it. The only way I can guarantee to fix it after-the-matter with SSDs is by destroying the thing, which is why I see it as a problem. Everyone is constantly learning good and better practices, but SSDs currently have a hole that blocks their ability to carry them out. Yeah, in an ideal world it wouldn't be an issue, but we don't live in an ideal world, so I see it as an issue definitely in need of being addressed.


But do they actually have any data that needs to be kept secret? I'd hazard a guess at "no". If they did, then they *should* be encrypting, it's a fairly binary thing. If you have data you want to keep secret, and it is unencrypted, then it is your own fault if it falls into the wrong hands, and while the ability to securely wipe your medium closes one possible vector for that to happen, it leaves others entirely alone, and in no way solves the problem.
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Life long Observer
 
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Post » Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:33 pm

But do they actually have any data that needs to be kept secret? I'd hazard a guess at "no". If they did, then they *should* be encrypting, it's a fairly binary thing. If you have data you want to keep secret, and it is unencrypted, then it is your own fault if it falls into the wrong hands, and while the ability to securely wipe your medium closes one possible vector for that to happen, it leaves others entirely alone, and in no way solves the problem.

Actually, yes, they do.

Many people don't think about data security, even when they need it. They think a password-protected account is security, when you and I both know it isn't. They keep credit card info, SSNs, and all sorts of stuff plain-as-day. Even worse when you leave the consumer world and enter the small business world. All sorts of information is left unencrypted.

"should" and "do" are almost mutually exclusive in this case, and a lot of it is because of a lack of knowledge. It doesn't solve the problem of possible theft, I agree, but securely wiping does solve problems of disposing of information on PCs to be recycled or resold. You can just look at the reports of hard drives sold with all sorts of information in-tact on ebay to see how prevalent the problem is as-is, it'll just be worse when wide-spread SSD adoption happens.
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Gill Mackin
 
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