If you're going to commit murder at least format your CF card

[Celtic Tiger]

Don't know if anyone watched CBS's 48 Hours Mystery tonight, but the featured story was about an amateur photographer who allegedly killed her boyfriend. She was supposedly several states away at the time of the murder. One main piece of evidence against her however was a CF card on which the photos had been deleted; but when they took it to the lab photos with time and date stamps were recovered. The photos showed the two in various sexual situations on the day of the murder, and even had a shot of the victim after he was killed. Now that's dedication to the hobby...can't pass up a killer shot (pun painfully intended).

One observation, whenever they showed a real picture of her holding a camera, it was a Canon; but when they shot cheesy reenactment shots they showed a Sony. Oh well, the Canon community would be better off not claiming her anyway I suppose.

[CustomMinds]

i missed that episode... but..

you can regrab data from a CF card after format.

side note, you should low level format a Hard Drive 7 times to ensure no data is recoverable.

[FlyingPhotog]

i missed that episode... but..

you can regrab data from a CF card after format.

side note, you should low level format a Hard Drive 7 times to ensure no data is recoverable.

Better Yet: Three 1/2" holes drilled completely through the case and platters works too... ;)

[sued5320]

Thinking it would be better to not risk it and just get rid of the CF card. It's not like it's hard to dispose = you could flush the blasted thing or feed it to the neighbor's dog. (No one said all criminals were highly intelligent, though.)

[nobodyspecial]

Or not take the picture(s) at all
Then again, thank goodness there are dumb criminals out there that get themselves arrested

[nphsbuckeye]

Burn it, or after deleting/formatting the card, fill it up with data so the files get overwritten (even though I recovered files last December taken from last summer).

[Thalagyrt]

i missed that episode... but..

you can regrab data from a CF card after format.

side note, you should low level format a Hard Drive 7 times to ensure no data is recoverable.

Actually, that's one run zeroed, one run oned, one run 01ed, one run 10ed, one run 0011ed, one run 1100ed, and one run random for best results. Alternatively you can do the runs all random data. Order doesn't matter. A low level format just zeroes everything and even after about 20 of those you can still recover data. ;)

[tkbslc]

Okay, as a public service announcement to all photographers and videographers on this forum:

If you are going to commit a crime LEAVE THE CAMERA HOME!!!

You have been warned.

[tzalman]

Better Yet: Three 1/2" holes drilled completely through the case and platters works too... ;)
I don't care if I get the death penalty, there is no way I'm gonna drill holes in my camera!

[chauncey]

There are not enough bullets in the world to kill all the folks that need killed and if there were, the time factor would negate having time to photo-document the acts. :lol:

[TheBurningCrown]

I don't care if I get the death penalty, there is no way I'm gonna drill holes in my camera!
Oh no, the camera's fine!

The hard drives and CF cards on the other hand...

[Willie]

Actually, that's one run zeroed, one run oned, one run 01ed, one run 10ed, one run 0011ed, one run 1100ed, and one run random for best results. Alternatively you can do the runs all random data. Order doesn't matter. A low level format just zeroes everything and even after about 20 of those you can still recover data. ;)

Chloe could still recover the data. :)

[cryforashadow]

How did they find the CF card and why did she take pictures anyway? Psycho.

[S.Horton]

Even psychos take photos.

I suppose that would be a psytogographer.

[20droger]

Reminds me of a recent story line on "Baby Blues." The baby found the camera in the bathroom and managed to take a series of pictures of mom in the shower. This ultimately resulted in the memory card "accidentally" falling into the garbage disposal a half-dozen times.

[DarksideTi]

Even psychos take photos.

I suppose that would be a psytogographer.

HAHAHAHAHA, awesome. :lol:

[bryank930]

Chloe could still recover the data. :)

Haha, I got the '24' reference there:cool: Excellent show!

[CustomMinds]

Chloe could still recover the data. :)




The government standard (DoD 5220.22-M ), considered a medium security level, specifies three iterations to completely overwrite a hard drive six times. Each iteration makes two write-passes over the entire drive; the first pass inscribes ones (1) over the drive surface and the second inscribes zeros (0) onto the surface. After the third iteration, a government designated code of 246 is written across the drive, then it is verified by a final pass that uses a read-verify process.

[Willie]

The government standard (DoD 5220.22-M ), considered a medium security level, specifies three iterations to completely overwrite a hard drive six times. Each iteration makes two write-passes over the entire drive; the first pass inscribes ones (1) over the drive surface and the second inscribes zeros (0) onto the surface. After the third iteration, a government designated code of 246 is written across the drive, then it is verified by a final pass that uses a read-verify process.

She worked for the now-defunct CTU.

'nuff said. :)

[Thalagyrt]

The government standard (DoD 5220.22-M ), considered a medium security level, specifies three iterations to completely overwrite a hard drive six times. Each iteration makes two write-passes over the entire drive; the first pass inscribes ones (1) over the drive surface and the second inscribes zeros (0) onto the surface. After the third iteration, a government designated code of 246 is written across the drive, then it is verified by a final pass that uses a read-verify process.

That actually does make a lot of sense, push the magnets to their polar extremes twice, then to the other polar extreme twice, then to a pattern, and the noise floor from the original data will be very hard to detect. I think it'd make more sense for the last pass to be randomized, as without the random seed you have no way to filter out that extra noise that was created by the random values, but either way it's unlikely anyone will recover anything using any of those methods.

In general one pass will do the trick, only the most specialized labs have tools to recover heavily wiped drives, and they're very expensive and generally only used by the federal government.

[birdfromboat]

I just watched a show on PBS about the Indian/Vietnamese/Chinese waste dumps where all of our old computers end up. Lots of burning plastic to leave behind copper for recycle, lots of melting lead to reclaim the gold from the motherboards and contacts, and lots of used but still working hard drives available for identity theft on a wholesale level. They found one hard drive with information about how some pentagon contracts are awarded, useful for anyone trying to get a successful bid. They also showed the only tried and true method to hide the information on a hard drive, and it involved a very stout looking hammer and several whacks. I would think it would work on a cf card also, and that a rock could be substituted in a pinch.

[Thalagyrt]

The hammer method definitely works. At my office any drives that had sensitive data are opened and the platters get crushed, torched, you name it, whatever we decide is fun that day.

[Mosca]

You can shred a CF or SD card in a standard office shredder; tape it to a piece of paper.

For a hard drive, I've always used an old bulk tape eraser for a minute, then a drill and hammer. I don't think there's enough value for anyone to go after it after that.