Imagine yourself disposing of your old laptop or giving it to your sibling to go to college. No doubt, you consider that placing your private files to the Recycle Bin and pressing "empty" deletes them. Sadly, it is an enormous blunder. Actually, deleting files equals to ripping off a book cover and leaving all pages in the library.
Deleting files is nothing more than making an OS mark storage space of this file as deleted without removing the file itself. It exists on your hard drive until something else overwrites it. And it becomes an excellent occasion for a hacker.
It is easy to recover your private documents with free software like Recuva or EaseUS. Your papers, chats, homework, everything will be exposed to hackers. And we need to change the current situation.
For protecting your private information, the file shredding will become a remedy. As you might have guessed already, it is similar to the paper shredder and overwrites files' data instead of removing their names.
There are two approaches to shredding your files. Firstly, you may use a file shredder whenever you think of it. But it is better to automate the process and make a computer do it for you.
As we discussed before, users of Windows may use a free file shredder named Eraser that has already gained an impressive reputation.
Firstly, you should download the latest version of the shredder from its official website. Then you may install it in the regular way. Finally, you will start it and see the Eraser's main scheduler.
The first step is choosing the "Erase Schedule" tab in the top part of the window. Then you need to press "New Task". A window will appear and ask you to enter details of your operation. Give it a clear name, for example, "Shred Recycle Bin".
Then you should inform the program which files to delete. For doing it, click "Add Data" and choose "Recycle Bin". Thus, the eraser will clean your Trash.
As you might notice, there are opportunities to schedule the task. You can set the time of its execution, for example, 2:00 AM while you sleep.
Users of Mac may use the application called "CleanMyMac X". It is a paid product; however, it has an excellent feature called "Shredder". You may use it by simply dragging your files and deleting them. It is cool!
Finally, Linux users may use terminal and shred their files manually with the help of "shred" command. You also may write a simple bash script to execute this command each week in your Downloads folder.
Why do you need to overwrite the file several times? Usually, one pass of random data is enough. However, according to government standards, including DoD 5220.22-M method, three or seven passes are needed for ensuring that there are no magnetic traces of files.
Imagine yourself writing some secret message in a pencil. If you erase this message once, you can notice the indent in the paper. But if you overwrite it seven times with thick ink, there will be no secret. The Eraser does it in the similar way.
However, there is one big caveat you should pay attention to. Solid State Drives (SSD) use "wear leveling" that helps to distribute the data evenly. Thus, aggressive shredding may reduce the lifetime of the drive.
As for SSDs, the best strategy is encrypting them. You may activate the BitLocker for Windows or FileVault for Mac. After encrypting your drive, shredding becomes unnecessary because hacked data become useless in this case.
HDDs are friends of shredding. There are moving parts and magnetic platters in them. So, overwriting data is quite efficient. If your laptop contains a spinning HDD, shredding becomes critical for its protection.
Automating the process of erasing the files gives you a great feeling of safety. You do not need to think about security anymore, and the software does it for you. All you need is to delete files as you used to.
Or else, you may face a disaster. You sell your laptop on eBay. The buyer restores your old tax statements and steals your identity. Imagine how terrible it is, and this situation occurs daily.
File shredding protects you from such disasters. It is the "set it and forget it" security solution. Five minutes that you will spend configuring it will save you years of problems.
Check out the options now. Install the Eraser or configure the settings. Do not trust the standard Delete button anymore. It deceives you about the destiny of your files.
Your digital privacy deserves this effort. Keep your files as confidential as your diary. Lock them tightly. And if you want to delete them, burn them to ashes.
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