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Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

destroyer.io

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Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#11

Post by s9ix »

alexnucci wrote: post #4
LoneWolf wrote: post #3

I didn't read much through the website but how can they assure me the disks are not imaged or read or anything else before they are destroyed?

Great question. Naturally, most of the inquiries or concerns around this service are going to revolve around trust and security. The obvious and straight forward answer is that we don't do that. The more complicated one would be that we'd break a large amount of serious laws if we were doing something like that. When testing the service out, some users asked for further assurance . The solution that seemed to be like…

Might be a random dream, but could you place magnets in the box or bag it's shipped in? As in, here - start the process / rub magnets against it while shipping and then degauss it again once it gets there?

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#12

Post by jdong »

Outsourcing sensitive data destruction sounds like a EXTREMELY good idea.

Also, the fact that the faq page contains blatant lies makes this company seem even less trustworthy.

"The only way to make sure that your data will never bee accessed is by physically destroying the disk."

Why wouldn't dban work?

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#13

Post by alexnucci »

jdong wrote: post #12

Outsourcing sensitive data destruction sounds like a EXTREMELY good idea. Also, the fact that the faq page contains blatant lies makes this company seem even less trustworthy. "The only way to make sure that your data will never bee accessed is by physically destroying the disk." Why wouldn't dban work?

Hi, hope all is well.

Nothing on the site is a lie. Especially, the fact that erasing data from a hardware using software is not a guaranteed way of ensuring that your data ever sees the light of day.

As a matter of fact, check out DBAN's homepage: http://www.dban.org/. The first bullet point: No guarantee of data removal (e.g. DBAN does not detect or securely erase SSDs)

Also, do a quick google search for "data extraction after formatting", you'll find plenty of solutions. From software downloads to forensic labs.

I will admit, however, that the FAQ answer lacks some depth. The site just launched, and the FAQ section is very much a work in progress. I will make sure to give more details, and reference some articles that back the point up.

Let me know if you have more questions. Thanks for the feedback!

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#14

Post by alexnucci »

s9ix wrote: post #11
alexnucci wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question. Naturally, most of the inquiries or concerns around this service are going to revolve around trust and security. The obvious and straight forward answer is that we don't do that. The more complicated one would be that we'd break a large amount of serious laws if we were doing something like that. When testing the service out, some users asked for further assurance . The solution that seemed to be like…

Might be a random dream, but could you place magnets in the box or bag it's shipped in? As in, here - start the process / rub magnets against it while shipping and then degauss it again once it gets there?

Yes! This idea had actually come up before.

I'll definitely give it an in depth look, this could make the whole process safer.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#15

Post by jdong »

alexnucci wrote: post #13
jdong wrote: post #12

Outsourcing sensitive data destruction sounds like a EXTREMELY good idea. Also, the fact that the faq page contains blatant lies makes this company seem even less trustworthy. "The only way to make sure that your data will never bee accessed is by physically destroying the disk." Why wouldn't dban work?

Hi, hope all is well. Nothing on the site is a lie. Especially, the fact that erasing data from a hardware using software is not a guaranteed way of ensuring that your data ever sees the light of day. As a matter of fact, check out DBAN's homepage: http://www.dban.org/ . The first bullet point: No guarantee of data removal (e.g. DBAN does not detect or securely erase SSDs) Also, do a quick google search for "data ext…

That particular text seemed to be talking about hard drives, not SSDs. Most SSDs support secure erase, unless the drive is defective in which case physical destruction is in fact required.

Extracting data from a fully rewritten HDD is completely unrealistic. (Formatting obviously does not achieve this)

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#16

Post by toomuchtodo »

jdong wrote: post #12

Outsourcing sensitive data destruction sounds like a EXTREMELY good idea. Also, the fact that the faq page contains blatant lies makes this company seem even less trustworthy. "The only way to make sure that your data will never bee accessed is by physically destroying the disk." Why wouldn't dban work?

I downvoted you because physical destruction truly is the only way to ensure a party can never recover data from a storage medium.

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#17

Post by toomuchtodo »

alexnucci wrote: post #8
sj4nz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS already has the infrastructure to do it and its over a century old. I'm not even questioning your service, I just know that you have no control in the USPS segment of the package's chain-of-custody. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mai...

Thanks for the article, and I understand your concern. Adding FedEx as an upgrade option is something that is in the plans. Since we're just launching, we started out with USPS because it's the most cost effective and convenient (daily mailbox pickup and you can even schedule one free). Having an alternative shipping method should help.

You should be able to bring UPS and Fedex online quickly using Easypost:

https://www.easypost.com/

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#18

Post by toomuchtodo »

ShaneCurran wrote: post #7

To be honest, it seems like a bit of overkill to pay $20 and ship a HDD to a 3rd party to have it destroyed. Wiping it in software, running it through a strong electromagnet and drilling a few holes in the platters or just beating the crap out of the drive is perfectly ok for destroying the data unless you're some top-secret government agency or whatever

This is not for you. This is for a business that would rather flip for the $10-$30 per drive. There are A LOT of businesses that would rather just pay someone to handle this.

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#19

Post by sj4nz »

alexnucci wrote: post #8
sj4nz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USPS already has the infrastructure to do it and its over a century old. I'm not even questioning your service, I just know that you have no control in the USPS segment of the package's chain-of-custody. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mai...

Thanks for the article, and I understand your concern. Adding FedEx as an upgrade option is something that is in the plans. Since we're just launching, we started out with USPS because it's the most cost effective and convenient (daily mailbox pickup and you can even schedule one free). Having an alternative shipping method should help.

You could very well charge a large, hefty premium to have a private courier service pick up drives to be destroyed. I'm sure that there would be a small, select client base that would pay for it. Or, subsidize part of the cost for this premium service from users of the lower-end services.

Re: Show HN: Destroyer.io – The easiest way to destroy your hard drive

#20

Post by sj4nz »

s9ix wrote: post #11
alexnucci wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question. Naturally, most of the inquiries or concerns around this service are going to revolve around trust and security. The obvious and straight forward answer is that we don't do that. The more complicated one would be that we'd break a large amount of serious laws if we were doing something like that. When testing the service out, some users asked for further assurance . The solution that seemed to be like…

Might be a random dream, but could you place magnets in the box or bag it's shipped in? As in, here - start the process / rub magnets against it while shipping and then degauss it again once it gets there?

This would be pretty cool, you could probably include both magnets and those Faraday shakers tied to a coil around the drive--but I have doubts as to how strong a field you could make before the overhead of shipping a portable, "hand powered" degausser would outweigh its usefulness.
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