As the information age has progressed, data security has become a greater and greater concern. Despite the popularity of mobile devices such as the iPad and iPhone, desktop and laptop computers are still used for the greatest variety of tasks, including business. This is especially true since more and more data that originally existed on paper is being digitized and now exists only in electronic form.
All of this data has caused a greater need for data information and storage systems, and along with larger capacity systems has come the need for increased security as well.
Many Mac software programs come with built-in security options, such as the ability to encrypt a file with a password. And MacOS X comes with FileVault, a way to secure all the files on one’s computer so that unauthorized people cannot access them.
However, low grade security measures will not stand up to expert and diligent extraction techniques. When it comes time to sell, give away or recycle your Mac, much more extreme data security measures are necessary, especially if it may contain critical information such as email addresses, credit card numbers or other customer data.
Short of physical destruction, and assuming your Mac is still operational, another way to secure your data is to wipe the disk. Simply dragging all files to the trash and choosing “Empty” is not enough! The fact is that there are software utilities for the Mac designed to recover “deleted” data.
This is because when a file is deleted, it is not actually “removed” or “erased” from your Mac’s hard drive. Instead, a marker is simply associated with the file to indicate that it has been deleted and that the space it occupies is available for use. The data itself, however, is still there for the knowledgeable hacker to recover.
Wiping a disc is more thorough. In this case, the data is not only marked for deletion but is actually written over with random data. In other words, the magnetic particles on the hard drive representing the data are rearranged into a random order making recovery nearly impossible. Theoretically it could still be recovered with the use of high-powered microscopes, but this would be so slow as to be impractical.
There are many Mac software programs designed to allow you to wipe your drive clean, some of them free and some commercial. Most of these are available online, making it easy to browse through them and compare their features to find the one that’s most appropriate for you. Some are designed to be used on only one Mac, while others can wipe an entire fleet of computers.
Some general Mac utilities perform multiple functions. For example, DriveGenius by Prosoft Engineering allows you to get information, defragment, scan, run a benchtest, repair minor directory errors and repartition, as well as wipe the data on your drive. MacKeeper by ZeoBIT LLC has security, data control (including a file shredder) cleaning, and optimization features.
If you prefer a simpler program, you may opt for ShredIt X by Mireth Technology or iWipe by illumineX. But you really don’t need a third party utility to wipe your hard drive at all, if your Mac is running Tiger or later; you can use Disk Utility in Applications/Utilities to zero out the data, run a 7-pass erase, or run a 35-pass erase.
Can these data wiping utilities make it safe to sell your Mac or to give it to charity, even if it has been used for business and other critical purposes? Yes, if the wiping process is performed completely and thoroughly. Multiple wiping “passes” will provide the greatest protection and can make recovery of deleted data virtually impossible.
The many disk wiping programs available for the Mac make it easy for even casual users to secure their data.
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