Tagged: security

Tutorial: Securely erasing a Mac SSD drive

With an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD.

Even though Apple states that you really don’t need to perform a Secure Erase on an SSD Drive, Peter Cohen put together a great tutorial on how to do just that over at the BackBlaze Blog. For those who take security seriously, Peter’s “Better safe than sorry” article is worth the read.

Automate system events for monitoring, anti-theft, and more with Digital Sentry

If you’re familiar with the web service IFTTT, you’ll feel right at home with the concept of Digital Sentry.

Digital Sentry monitors your system for specific events, and then can perform a vast array of unique actions in response. Use it to automatically cleanse internet history when closing a browser, automate redundant computer tasks, perform covert surveillance, or even protect your sensitive data during unauthorized access or theft! (more…)

How to truly delete a file in Mac OS X

Securely Empty TrashMost people aren’t aware that when you empty the trash in Mac OS X, you aren’t actually deleting a file. It’s true. Selecting Empty Trash from the Finder menu, or using the Command + Shift + Delete keyboard shortcut simply marks the chosen files or folders in a way that allows the system to overwrite them whenever it needs to. The actual files remain on your hard drive until the system actually writes another file on top of them.

In order to truly delete a file or folder, you must use Mac OS X’s Secure Empty Trash command under the Finder menu. When you use this method to empty your trash, the system actually overwrites the file with gibberish data, mostly ensuring your file is unrecoverable.

Securely Empty TrashIf you’re concerned about security, you can set Mac OS X to always securely delete your files when you empty the trash the normal way by going to your menubar and choosing Finder>Preferences, and turning on the Empty Trash Securely item.