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General discussion

Too Security Conscious/Paranoid?

Dec 5, 2008 2:52AM PST

I've been having a discussion with my SO (significant other) about my concern (fanatascism) about info security in the real world.

When I get junk mail, subscriptions or receipts I usually digitise them to PDF then redact my Name, Address or any other critical info like acct # etc, and then shred them in a cross cut shredder before disposing of it.

I usually do the same with digital info using a secure delete utility that uses DOD shredding and wipes the empty space as well.

Is this overdoing it???

Discussion is locked

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Overdoing It
Dec 5, 2008 3:13AM PST

Maybe on the Junk Mail. Likely not enough on the computer. One area of security isn't the files you are deleting. It's the unused space on the drive. When temporary files are deleted often the information that was in the file is still on the drive. You need to clear up that space as well.

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I do wipe the free space periodically..
Dec 5, 2008 3:54AM PST

about once a month. I don't want to do it more frequently because I heard it reduces the lifespan of the harddrive???