Secure Data Destruction

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whitey1285

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I'm writing a report on secure data destruction on Macs. I've looked into using the "Disk Utility" that is built into OS X, but I'm not sure what algorithms it uses. For my purposes I need them to be at least DOD 5220.22M compliant. I know that the utility can erase data using seven or thirty-five passes, but it does not specify which algorithm is used. Does anyone know whether Disk Utility achieves this level of security?
 
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The command line srm utility will use Gutmann by default.
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/srm.1.html

So does the diskutil command.http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/diskutil.8.html

I believe the equivalent GUI features (Secure Empty Trash and Disk Utility, respectively) are just front-ends to these, although I can find no official documentation to support that. There are also a number of third-party GUI frontends to srm/Gutmann.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23181&mode=feedback&vid=174041
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12833
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26824
 

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