Thoughts regarding encryption & non-securely deleted files

Let's say you have a USB drive, non encrypted, from which you over the years have deleted a bunch of files - non-securely. Since you realize that the files are sensitive, you now choose to encrypt the drive with the right-click -> Encrypt function. Furthermore, you also set the trash can to always securely delete files from now on.
What worries me about this scenario are the old files that were deleted non-securely, before encryption: If someone would steal the drive and attempt to restore data that hasn't yet been overwritten, would those deleted files be accessible to that person? Or have the encryption effectively scrambled those old files as well?
I know that the best option is to do a 7-pass format and encrypt the drive and then move your files to it, but that isn't always an option (you might not have space to store files temporarily somewhere else, for example).
An other thing about "secure delete" which isn't really clear: Does the secure delete also overwrite previously deleted files or just the ones from the point in time when you turned on the setting?

If someone would steal the drive and attempt to restore data that hasn't yet been overwritten, would those deleted files be accessible to that person?
No. Every block on the drive will be encrypted, including free blocks.

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If a drive is encrypted (format level) does this mean any un-securely deleted files remain encrypted?

If a drive is encrypted (at the format level i.e. Journaled Encrypted) does this mean any UN-securely deleted files remain encrypted? Thus empying your trash with secure erase on is redundant?

I would think the files are safe - while the drive is encrypted.
I would think once the drive has been unlocked then apps like data rescue may be able to lift previously deleted files from the drive. Might be worth trying it out.....
I think with an encrypted drive, all bets are off once the key is entered, it would appear as any other drive at that stage.

Secure delete files on my time capsule.

how do I secure delete files on my time capsule. It keeps saying it can't be done . Wirelessly

OSX Tips Setting-up a new Mac from an old one, its Backups, or a PC

Trouble with Secure Delete Files

OK, I have upgragded to Tiger and I can't use WMP any longer. I'm a little angry about that, but I'll get over it.
I moved WMP to the trash and am trying to do a secure file delete and I get the following error:
The operation cannot be completed because the item "htm" is in use.
I can't figure out what's wrong. There 's nothing (that I can see) in the trash called htm. I like the secure file delete because it frees up space on my computer, but am stumped.
Anyone out there know what htm is?
Thanks for your help!
Oh, by the way...I have restarted, just in case something was running. I thought a restart would stop any program running.

MCOJerry
The first string, cd ~/.Trash/ takes you to the Trash directory in your home folder. The second, sudo rm -R * will delete its contents. Please tell me Was the stuff moved to the Trash folder from the internal start up disk?
Please if you are uncertain just copy the commands from this thread and paste onto the terminal window.
On Terminal: When you start the terminal application you are presented with something like:
name of your computer:~ yourusername$
On typing the first command it should be like this:
name of your computer:~/.Trash yourusername$
With the second command you will need to type in your password after you press return. This will not be echoed, i.e. the cursor will not move as you are doing this. This is normal.

Should files be securely deleted if using File Vault?

Do I need to "shred" or in someway securely delete files and mail that sit in File Vault? I am new to the MacOS and I am not sure where deleted files/mail go. If they don't leave the Home Folder it should be ok but if they somehow are relocated outside the Home Folder, I assume I would have a problem unless they are securely deleted.

Interesting question, sgmiller.
The default Trash location is a hidden directory in your Home folder, ~/.Trash, which would be in your File Vault, assuming the File Vault includes your entire Home directory and doesn't leave anything out.
When you delete a file, its directory entry is updated, rewriting the parent directory of the file to the ~/.Trash folder. Then when you empty the Trash, the directory entry of the file is simply removed and the file disappears from the file system. They don't really go anywhere, they just disappear. However, the bytes still remain on the disk until something else comes along and writes to those sectors, so Secure Delete can be used to overwrite the previously used areas of the disk with zeros.
I guess it depends on how careful you want to be. You may also be interested in using Secure Virtual Memory if you aren't already, under "System Preferences->Security".
Clear as mud, my apologies!

Unable to delete files from encrypted external SD Card using File Commander

I've run into some trouble trying to delete the directory com.spotify.music from my external SD Card (encrypted) after a hard reboot using the reset button next to the sim card.
I need to do this for the Spotify app to work (FC on starting it) and I'm currently unable to delete the folder and its contents from Sony provided file explorer(FC File Commander).
Is there a way to delete this app from adb or other command line tool or how should I go about this? Developer options are enabled because I'm learning to develop apps. Not particularly keen on rooting or otherwise format my SD Card but it's an option if there are no other ways to do it.
I can see the contents of my card using File Commander just fine. Spotify app is uninstalled, I tried remove cache and data before uninstall also.

Thommo wrote:
Are you able to delete files via your Pc or are you able to remove the card from your phone and connect it to a Pc for file deletion - There is a free program called Unlocker currently on version 1.9.2 which is excellent at deleting files that don't want to be deleted - You would install the program then right click the file and choose Unlocker and then when the program starts choose delete
I guess he will not be able to move the SD card to the computer since it's encrypted and is working only with that particular device, but he should be able to access it via PC.
If you can try to uninstall Spotify from your phone. I assume Spotify is not working due to some rubbish inside it's directory, but on the other hand you can't delete the folder because it may be used by Spotify. If you uninstall app folder may be unlocked.
Best regards,
Sergio PL
Xperia Z1 / Nexus 7 (2012)

Does Revel have a backup retention for deleted files in the cloud and what is the encryption level it uses both end-to-end and locally?

I'm interested in the premium version of this service however I'd like to know if:
1. Revel has any kind of cloud backup feature for accidentally deleted files.
2. What encryption strength does it use for it's end-to-end transfers and also for the local app and cloud storage
3. Does it have 2 stage authentication?
I ask because I need something picture friendly but is also HIPAA and SEC compliant.
thanks!

Hi nick2048,
We take security and privacy very seriously and send all communication over encrypted channels.
However, as a consumer photo site that supports user sharing, it is not our goal to achieve HIPAA certification
Hope this helps!
Glenyse

Mail form editor: error message regarding "non-secure active code"

Hi,
I'm using the editor for mail forms in CRM 2007. I'd like to create a form containing pictures, personalized fields (e.g. salutation) and hard-coded text.
However, when stepwise adding all of these elements, error message "The content you have entered may contain non-secure active code; so it has been deleted." is displayed in the screen where all elements are shown, so, some kind of WYSIWYG error message. It's not a message of the browser, it's displayed directly in the middle of the content screen and all text, images and fields inserted in the mail before are gone.
Any idea?
Regards
Wolfgang

Hi,
In one of my previous project I had similar type of issues when designing the mail form, the HTML code changes were happening. SAP follows specific HTML version and you have to stick to that version when coding. Ideal would be design the HTML code and test it bit by bit to ensure that the same is acceptable.
Regards,
Deepak
P.S. English word for ausführbaren is probably executable
Edited by: Deepak Ahuja on Feb 10, 2009 1:28 PM

Deleting files via Finder menu--all I see is Secure Delete

What happened to the plain old "Delete Files" option in the finder menu? I just loaded Tiger, and all I see is the "Secure Delete" option. While I find it a useful tool, sometimes it just takes too long if I am deleting large files.
Any thoughts?

Perhaps you should consider reinstalling Tiger. I just checked my wife's computer (10.3.9 installed) and it, too, has both menuitems.

Cannot secure delete items from trash: 180 items (pictures, files, folders) remain even if I check "remove all items"

I cannot secure delete items from trash: 180 items (pictures, files, folders) remain even if I check "remove all items". Macbook Pro, 10.6.8

Maybe the items are locked.
Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Shortcuts for working with items in the Finder
Shortcuts for working with items in the Finder Command (⌘)-Shift-DeleteEmpty the Trash without any warning or when it contains locked filesCommand (⌘)-Shift-Option-Delete
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/cdb_cpmvfky.html

Time Machine Deleted Files From A Non-Full Backup?

OK... I just noticed something strange... I had some movie files that I deleted sometime yesterday (don't need them anymore)... just now, I wanted to see to retrieve one of them with TM and they're gone!
My backup drive is nowhere near full and TM didn't warn me about deleting anything... looking at my backups, I noticed that I only have backups for yesterday at 8:03AM and from 8:09PM (and on)... I'm guessing that's the case because anything before 8:09PM is now more than 24 hrs old... hence, it's 'thinned out'... I also noticed that I only have my initial backup from Friday... not the several it made afterwards... and that backup from Friday is missing some data I had that was captured by the later backups...
What's going on here? Seems to me that it should have all of my stuff, no?

jdelima wrote:
If you have all of the hourly data essentially versioned and incorporated into the daily, then Joe wants to restore from 3 days ago, if he has a file there that he has changed every single hour for that particular day, then he has 24 possible files to restore! It becomes a versioning nightmare. Though my example is extreme it's possible.
Yeah, but that is what computers are good at, though. You can even put a simple UI on this, where the most recent version (the last edited version before its untimely deletion) is the only thing you see, unless you want to delve deeper into the depths of versions of the file.
Also consider what is currently done for backups. People manually, or to a schedule, do point in time backups. Not as frequently as time machine, but it still happens. They have the exact same issues, with the exception that TM may have people becoming relaxed about their data, falsely believing it always going to be in a backup set somewhere.
Yeah, point-in-time backups are always an issue, because they are just a snapshot, and not a journal of things done to change a file, so you can't recover something if it was never in a point-in-time backup.
Sure it has it's flaws, but overall it's better there than not.
I totally agree with that. Getting people to use some backup (even if flawed) is way better than the dismal state of backups for end users. I guess I'm just advocating for improving even further the state of backups, to a point where you can actually rely on them 99.999%.
In case anyone is interested, I have been participating in an Open Source backup project "Box Backup" for the last few years. It supports the keeping of deleted files as long as the backup server has space left. It also solves another TM problem, in that it backs up only what changed in a large file (like a Parallels virtual Disk), so you don't need to do full backups of every file every time it changes. It has many other features as well, such as network backups, encrypted backups, and multiple platform support (Windows, Mac, Linux, and more).
Go to http://www.boxbackup.org/ to check it out.
This, however is not a solution (yet) for the average Joe to use. It requires a server on which to run the backup server (which could be a Mac), and some setup, and use of Terminal.app, etc. But it does solve many of the issues with TM.
Thanks,
Per

My macbook pro inform that i am running out of disk space. However, I am unable to secure delete those files that are in Trash. Many files in Trash are "locked". how do I secure delete these files in trash

I am unable to secure delete those files in the Trash. Many files are marked as "locked" Is this way I cannot secure delete these files?

Can you not just select them and remove the locked flag?

How do I "delete" files that I emptied from the trash but not securely deleted

just dont want to waste memory

They are gone. Securely deleting a file or files in no way affects memory. It doesn't affect disk storage space either. I merely makes it more difficult for someone to recover data from a hard drive.

Disk utility to prevent the recover of deleted files / empty trash securely

I just used the disk utility to prevent the recover of deleted files...
It created a recovery folder which I tried to empty trash securely...i the got a message saying there are some locked items and I responded to remove all items...
It would not let me do that the file stayed in the trash until I changed the setting and just emptied the trash the conventional way..
Can anyone tell me why that is happening???

Disk Drill, and all other file recovery apps for the Mac will recover every deleted file it can find on the drive. However, it should not have been at all possible to recover the ones you deleted with Secure Empty Trash. All files currently in the trash have every bit of their data overwritten 7 times with random data.
Were these part of what was recovered? Or just other normally deleted items?

My Macbook Air can delete files and folders and take them to Trash Can but cannot delete from Trash Can . Cannot empty trash securely.

My Macbook Air can delete files and folders and take them to Trash Can but cannot delete from Trash Can . Cannot empty trash securely.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Thoughts regarding encryption & non-securely deleted files

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