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Help/Advice with TrueCrypt (and free space wiping)?

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40hz:
- A single-pass zero-overwrite will be more than sufficient for wiping anything other than nuclear weapon authorization codes.

- DBAN is probably the easiest and most effective full drive nuke utility. I'd go with the "quick" option, since even that is overkill. I agree with f0dder regarding the so-called "military grade" wipe options: Don't waste your time or put unnecessary wear & tear on your drives/USB keys.

- For zapping free space on a drive I like SysInternal's SDelete ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx ). Eraser does the same, gives you a nice GUI, and also does it a bit more thoroughly.


Modern-day forensic data recovery software is making remarkable strides in being able to recover data on drives that have been wiped. However, if you come across someone with such software and they have a keen interest in what is on your encrypted volume you will have far larger worries than worrying about someone checking out your passwords.

As long as you are not doing anything illegal you should be fine with a standard wipe. I recommending using DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke).
-Innuendo (June 14, 2009, 12:34 PM)
--- End quote ---

+1 on that.  ;D

If you are doing something sufficiently "interesting" to garner the attentions of somebody with access to that level of technology, you're probably already under surveillance, so I doubt your hard drive is going to tell them anything they don't already know.

Suggestion regarding passwords - don't enter the passwords into your database in their true form. Always transpose the last three characters, add some bogus ones to the real password, or otherwise hash/obscure them. That way, should somebody crack your password container's master password, what they see still won't be the real passwords.

P.S. In the United States, judges can and do order defendants in criminal (and some civil) investigations to unlock files that they have password protected. So if you're "keeping company with naughty men," as Captain Malcolm Reynolds would say, your password "won't protect you much from Lawman."

. 8)

<EDIT-- Whoops! WC! You got in your reply before I posted. Feel free to disregard all of  the above except for the password tip. ;D >

akx:
P.S. In the United States, judges can and do order defendants in criminal (and some civil) investigations to unlock files that they have password protected. So if you're "keeping company with naughty men," as Captain Malcolm Reynolds would say, your password "won't protect you much from Lawman."
-40hz (June 14, 2009, 03:51 PM)
--- End quote ---

Which is why a hidden volume was created. You can hand over the decryption keys to the outer volume and there's no naughty data at all. Wikipedia: Plausible deniability in cryptography

f0dder:
Innuendo: software won't be able to do anything about a zero-wiped drive. There might be hardware that can do something, but as 40hz said - if somebody with access to that kind of technology is after you, you're pretty much SOL already :)

wreckedcarzz: yeah, it's more secure in the sense that if somebody finds a fatal flaw in one of the encryption algorithms, your entire setup isn't broken. And it slows down bruteforce speed. But I find it pretty unlikely that an effective attack is found against AES anytime soon, and if somebody with enough computer power to bruteforce a 256bit AES key is after you... you're pretty much SOL already :)

40hz:
P.S. In the United States, judges can and do order defendants in criminal (and some civil) investigations to unlock files that they have password protected. So if you're "keeping company with naughty men," as Captain Malcolm Reynolds would say, your password "won't protect you much from Lawman."
-40hz (June 14, 2009, 03:51 PM)
--- End quote ---

Which is why a hidden volume was created. You can hand over the decryption keys to the outer volume and there's no naughty data at all. Wikipedia: Plausible deniability in cryptography
-akx (June 14, 2009, 04:59 PM)
--- End quote ---

Except there's still one little problem....

There's no such thing as a secret if it's really not a secret. And an "open secret" is just another oxymoron.

Since the makers of TrueCrypt were so good as to write an essay about "plausible deniability" with regard to the hidden volume feature, any investigator or prosecutor worthy of the name is going to make an argument for "reasonable cause" to believe that there is a "very strong likelihood" of such hidden volumes being present on any PC that has TrueCrypt installed.

Should that happen, you will be asked (under oath) whether there is such a volume on your drive. And at that point, you'll be faced with two alternatives:



* Deny there is one, and risk facing a perjury or contempt charge   -or-
* Admit that there is one, and very likely be ordered to decrypt it
So either way, it doesn't much help you. In fact, having TrueCrypt on your machine might sway the authorities to give you even less slack than they might have. Especially since your behavior could be interpreted as "going to extraordinary lengths" and/or "using sophisticated means" to hide something on your hard drive.

Like f0dder so aptly said: "You're pretty much SOL already" ;D

 8)

Innuendo:
f0dder, I wasn't sure of the details that it required hardware as well (magnetic tips on cantilevers scanning drive platters. Ooo..fascinating), but i was trying to make wreckedcarzz aware that wiping a hard drive isn't going to save you if you have attracted the attention of The Man.

Now if you are trying to just keep parents, spouses, significant others, siblings, and friends from sticking their collective noses into your stuff then wipe away.

The only reason I brought this up at all is because he was talking about creating a container in a decoy container with a decoy password. That's usually only done for plausible deniability when you figure you are going to be demanded to give up the password and you figure you are going to have to do it or face significant consequences not like a friend wanting it and you can tell them to step off. Well, unless he's just trying to hide his midget porn from his parents or something similar.  ;D

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