OS X Permanent Eraser
This post was published 3 years 2 months 11 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.Appropriately named OS X privacy utility Permanent Eraser does one thing and one thing very well – secure file deletion.
When you normally delete your files in Mac OS X, the operating system is only forgetting where those particular files are placed, while the data still physically remains on the drive. Beginning with Mac OS 10.3, Apple enhanced its security by introducing the Secure Empty Trash feature, which follows the U.S. DoD pattern of overwriting data seven times.
Permanent Eraser provides an even stronger level of security by implementing the Gutmann Method. This utility overwrites your data thirty-five times, scrambles the original file name, and truncates the file size to nothing before Permanent Eraser finally unlinks it from the system.
Mmm. Gutmann Method. Move over Finder (Secure Deletion), I have a new utility for deleting porn super sensitive documents off my hardrives. Licensing is free (“educational”).
Nice, you can hover achive the, almost, same goal with DiskUtil (or the command line version). Using the “erase free space” option you can select the type of erase you would like to perform:
1 – Single pass randomly erase the disk.
2 – US DoD 7 pass secure erase.
3 – Gutmann algorithm 35 pass secure erase.
(from: $ diskutil secureErase –help )
I have setup a recuring script using Launchd (and the ever so useful Lingon) that runs a 7-pass erase over the free space every week that way I don’t need to worry too much about possible data recovery theft. I guess I could run it with the Gutmann algorithm, but it would take for ever.