> The 10s I think will be the information revolution decade.
The 10s will be the decade where we see the struggle and balance between the incredible power of all-seeing technology used for both fascist control of every aspect of our lives and for the freedom to exchange knowledge and associate in ways never before possible.
I hope the good guys win, because George Orwell only had the slightest idea what would be possible with todays technology.
What we need is for some civic minded pedophile to take one for the good of the country. Use this database to make a list of vulnerable children. Get caught on purpose. Go to jail. Raise a public outcry over this asinine database.
> so dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda will leave files floating around?
I think you are being sarcastic, but you just said the exact opposite of what I posted. rm $myfile will leave files floating around. dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda will leave nothing.
Of course, in my line of business dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda may land you in jail for destruction of evidence.
As Squoozer said a data recovery firm doesn't know anything about your special file formats, they just apply some standard tools. First they follow a set of procedures to get the drive working physically and electronically, then they scan the drive for files to recover. They can recover directory entries (MFT for NTFS) and they can recover based on file signatures. If the directory entries can't be recovered and they don't know the specifics of how to scan for your unusual file formats they won't find them.
McFly, Turn off the computer and remove that hard drive right away. Every second it is in use more things are being permanently overwritten.
Most tools, such as FTK Imager from Access Data, at this point will look at your drive and conclude it was (is) a Windows NTFS drive because of the headers the formatting put there. Your best bet is to use a file "carving" tool such as Scalpel, or PhotoRec to scan through the drive ignoring the file structures and recovering files based on the patterns of file headers and footers it finds. Even better would be something that can recognize and rebuild HFS+ directory structures but I don't have any specific recommendations there (I don't work on Macs that often).
Oh, and if you make a clone of the drive (a bit for bit copy using 'dd' or something equivalent) you can safely work off the clone and if you royally mess up you still have the original. I never work from an original.
I am a computer forensics expert. I search for deleted data for a living, and I testify in court as to what can be done.
Unfortunately you are wrong about recovering data that has been overwritten by using magnetic magic. That is an urban legend that has been disproven. Maybe 20 years ago using low density MFM drives it was theoretically possible, but now it is not. Maybe the NSA has some tech they reversed engineered from an Area-51 UFO to do this, but I've never seen or heard of it.
Even Gutmann has recanted his 38 wipes recommendation.
Now don't mistake overwritten data for deleted data. When data is deleted it is NOT overwritten. When a hard drive is re-formatted almost nothing is over-written. When a file is overwritten with zeros or random bytes there are probably 10 more copies of that file and previous versions of that file floating around in unallocated sectors, swap space, file slack, hibernation files, etc.
> This law will further criminalize every teenager in America.
A: "What were you two convicted of?" G1: "Well... I took a nude picture of myself and sent it to my boyfriend." A: "And how about you?" G2: "I kept telling her she was an idiot for taking a nude picture of herself. I made her cry."
> Unfortunately, Sun had no plans on licensing ZFS so it could run on Linux. Will Oracle change it's mind? Probably not, hence the reason btrfs is reproducing features of ZFS.
You are aware that Oracle is the company behind BTRFS and Oracle now owns Sun and ZFS?
I am a computer forensic investigator, and I know what the structure of a zip file looks like internally. It's NOT a blob of random bits. Even a corrupted zip file has a well defined header, indexes, etc.
It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to hide data from a good investigator who has the time and motivation to investigate thoroughly. If I find a large file containing only random bytes, it is NOT a normal thing and I will look into it further, especially if the file size is an even multiple of 512 bytes. If I can find traces of TrueCrypt ever having been used on that drive I will have a pretty good idea what I'm looking at. I can try to decrypt the file using every possible string found on the hard drive, including bits of memory saved to the paging file and hibernation file. If I manage to decrypt and open the file and find it is formatted with the FAT32 filesystem instead of NTFS I will be very suspicious that this was done because there is a hidden "plausibly deniable" inner volume. I will then work on cracking that open like I did the outer volume. I will also report to the authorities I am working for that there is a significant possibility of a hidden volume. They will use their social skills to get the key from the owner.
The real limitation is that cases usually DON'T give me enough time or resources to investigate that deeply, or the lawyers manage to bury the issue of an encrypted file and it doesn't get addressed. The best bet for a person with something to hide is to make it very difficult and time consuming for an investigator to get to the bad stuff, and hope his case isn't that important to warrant the time to dig deeply. In practice that means if you cheated your partner in a small business and hide it very very well I probably won't find it. If you killed someone I will find it.
> A more interesting challenge would be Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
All expectations would be on IBM's advanced AI winning Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Yet despite those expectations we would be thrilled to see a young, plucky A.I. that grew up in dirt poverty in the video game arcades of Detroit manage to win through the cooincidence of the questions all relating to events in the young A.I.s life; Questions such as "In Defender, the protagonist rides on the back of (A) An Elephant (B) A Horse (C) An Ostrich (D) A Camel?" The young A.I. would overcome setbacks, such as an egotistical firewall having the young A.I. beaten... but in the end the young A.I. would triumph!
> Insulting a police officer will indeed land you a 5000 Euro fine. Insulting a judge should be similar.
Here in the U.S. insulting a police officer will result in a lot worse than a $5000 fine. Of course, there is no law against insulting a police officer, but the officer will think of something, and beat you while you "resist arrest." Especially in Texas and Arizona. Especially if you are brown.
I was born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, where we were all taught to fear and loathe the big mean city. What a surprise it was when I grew up and started working in Manhattan and found out that the majority of people in New York City are much nicer, kinder, and more friendly than the stuck up people in the suburbs.
Here's an experiment you should try: Get lost in the suburbs and again in the city. Ask for help. You might be surprised at the results; I was.
In the city there are so many people that it has become a social custom to give people "virtual space" by not meeting eyes or interacting in crowded temporary spaces like the subway, the street, and elevators. Don't mistake that for unfriendliness.
Slashdot Mirror
It's important to understand the basics of chemistry and biology so you know when you are being lied to by the media.
In related news, Sun changes their stock symbol to 'APPSTOR'. "This change will revolutionize the industry, " said Chairman Scott McNealy.
> The 10s I think will be the information revolution decade.
The 10s will be the decade where we see the struggle and balance between the incredible power of all-seeing technology used for both fascist control of every aspect of our lives and for the freedom to exchange knowledge and associate in ways never before possible.
I hope the good guys win, because George Orwell only had the slightest idea what would be possible with todays technology.
You need to use BeOS. It's really the greatest Operating System evah!
Of course, you are asking for professional video advice on Slashdot, so don't complain if you get terrible advice.
I had a teacher who gave instant 0 grades to those who programmed in any language but 'FORTH' because he thought it was so 'neat and efficient'.
Of course, my story has no more truth than yours.
Hah hah. That's cute. Talgrath thinks 10% of escorts just talk and go to parties with you.
What we need is for some civic minded pedophile to take one for the good of the country.
Use this database to make a list of vulnerable children. Get caught on purpose. Go to jail.
Raise a public outcry over this asinine database.
> so dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda will leave files floating around?
I think you are being sarcastic, but you just said the exact opposite of what I posted.
rm $myfile will leave files floating around.
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda will leave nothing.
Of course, in my line of business dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda may land you in jail for destruction of evidence.
As Squoozer said a data recovery firm doesn't know anything about your special file formats, they just apply some standard tools. First they follow a set of procedures to get the drive working physically and electronically, then they scan the drive for files to recover. They can recover directory entries (MFT for NTFS) and they can recover based on file signatures. If the directory entries can't be recovered and they don't know the specifics of how to scan for your unusual file formats they won't find them.
McFly, Turn off the computer and remove that hard drive right away. Every second it is in use more things are being permanently overwritten.
Most tools, such as FTK Imager from Access Data, at this point will look at your drive and conclude it was (is) a Windows NTFS drive because of the headers the formatting put there. Your best bet is to use a file "carving" tool such as Scalpel, or PhotoRec to scan through the drive ignoring the file structures and recovering files based on the patterns of file headers and footers it finds. Even better would be something that can recognize and rebuild HFS+ directory structures but I don't have any specific recommendations there (I don't work on Macs that often).
Oh, and if you make a clone of the drive (a bit for bit copy using 'dd' or something equivalent) you can safely work off the clone and if you royally mess up you still have the original. I never work from an original.
I am a computer forensics expert. I search for deleted data for a living, and I testify in court as to what can be done.
Unfortunately you are wrong about recovering data that has been overwritten by using magnetic magic.
That is an urban legend that has been disproven. Maybe 20 years ago using low density MFM drives it was theoretically possible, but now it is not. Maybe the NSA has some tech they reversed engineered from an Area-51 UFO to do this, but I've never seen or heard of it.
Even Gutmann has recanted his 38 wipes recommendation.
Now don't mistake overwritten data for deleted data. When data is deleted it is NOT overwritten. When a hard drive is re-formatted almost nothing is over-written. When a file is overwritten with zeros or random bytes there are probably 10 more copies of that file and previous versions of that file floating around in unallocated sectors, swap space, file slack, hibernation files, etc.
But what IS overwritten is gone.
> Someone please translate to slightly less nerd speak.
This is the recently released code that breaks Blue-Ray DRM.
If you don't know how to make logical analogies, don't do it.
So what? Olive Oil can be used as a lubricant. I don't fear the Olive Oil.
Well if China says it's safe, that's good enough for me!
Their safety record speaks for itself.
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/10/product_safety.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/fury-as-china-baby-milk-scandal-escalates-934993.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/19/MNV1RKN0L.DTL
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/worldbusiness/19toys.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/series/toxicpipeline/index.html
> This law will further criminalize every teenager in America.
A: "What were you two convicted of?"
G1: "Well... I took a nude picture of myself and sent it to my boyfriend."
A: "And how about you?"
G2: "I kept telling her she was an idiot for taking a nude picture of herself. I made her cry."
> Microsoft said that it'd be different this time and they've changed,
Damn it, I voted for change this time. I want my change.
> Unfortunately, Sun had no plans on licensing ZFS so it could run on Linux. Will Oracle change it's mind? Probably not, hence the reason btrfs is reproducing features of ZFS.
You are aware that Oracle is the company behind BTRFS and Oracle now owns Sun and ZFS?
I am a computer forensic investigator, and I know what the structure of a zip file looks like internally. It's NOT a blob of random bits. Even a corrupted zip file has a well defined header, indexes, etc.
It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to hide data from a good investigator who has the time and motivation to investigate thoroughly. If I find a large file containing only random bytes, it is NOT a normal thing and I will look into it further, especially if the file size is an even multiple of 512 bytes. If I can find traces of TrueCrypt ever having been used on that drive I will have a pretty good idea what I'm looking at. I can try to decrypt the file using every possible string found on the hard drive, including bits of memory saved to the paging file and hibernation file. If I manage to decrypt and open the file and find it is formatted with the FAT32 filesystem instead of NTFS I will be very suspicious that this was done because there is a hidden "plausibly deniable" inner volume. I will then work on cracking that open like I did the outer volume. I will also report to the authorities I am working for that there is a significant possibility of a hidden volume. They will use their social skills to get the key from the owner.
The real limitation is that cases usually DON'T give me enough time or resources to investigate that deeply, or the lawyers manage to bury the issue of an encrypted file and it doesn't get addressed. The best bet for a person with something to hide is to make it very difficult and time consuming for an investigator to get to the bad stuff, and hope his case isn't that important to warrant the time to dig deeply. In practice that means if you cheated your partner in a small business and hide it very very well I probably won't find it. If you killed someone I will find it.
DOH! I meant Joust (although I was a fan of Defender of the Crown as well...)
> [...] the "permanent future" of stuff that is always a few years away. Holographic storage, fusion power, GNU HURD, Duke Nukem Forever, etc. [...]
I want my flying jetpack damn it!
> A more interesting challenge would be Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
All expectations would be on IBM's advanced AI winning Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Yet despite those expectations we would be thrilled to see a young, plucky A.I. that grew up in dirt poverty in the video game arcades of Detroit manage to win through the cooincidence of the questions all relating to events in the young A.I.s life; Questions such as "In Defender, the protagonist rides on the back of (A) An Elephant (B) A Horse (C) An Ostrich (D) A Camel?" The young A.I. would overcome setbacks, such as an egotistical firewall having the young A.I. beaten... but in the end the young A.I. would triumph!
and this classic
oh, sorry I mixed up my fascists. Don't report me.
> Insulting a police officer will indeed land you a 5000 Euro fine. Insulting a judge should be similar.
Here in the U.S. insulting a police officer will result in a lot worse than a $5000 fine. Of course, there is no law against insulting a police officer, but the officer will think of something, and beat you while you "resist arrest." Especially in Texas and Arizona. Especially if you are brown.
I was born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, where we were all taught to fear and loathe the big mean city.
What a surprise it was when I grew up and started working in Manhattan and found out that the majority of people in New York City are much nicer, kinder, and more friendly than the stuck up people in the suburbs.
Here's an experiment you should try: Get lost in the suburbs and again in the city. Ask for help. You might be surprised at the results; I was.
In the city there are so many people that it has become a social custom to give people "virtual space" by not meeting eyes or interacting in crowded temporary spaces like the subway, the street, and elevators. Don't mistake that for unfriendliness.