hi,
I accidently saved some files in /media/truecrypt1 when it wasn't mounted yet.... so basically like in so many cases one could be in need of secure wipe...
As in many cases, the filenames are more sensitive than the data. And no, im not trying to hide my porn from my mom, in which case
rm would have satisfied nicely...
I have been reading around and it seems shred is the more advanced tool compared with the alternative dd... Apart from that just some tools that offer to wipe free space and swap...
As we all know, EXT3 is a journalling file system, which stores at default level meta data about hard disk access... Im quite certain that shred and dd don't wipe that, and what about some master file table...?
Does anyone know if there are tools to get secure delete of a file on EXT3 that takes care of everypart of data including metadata, file names etc...
Further more, i would like to inform about people's opinions on privacy in linux, and specifically ubuntu...
Remember the times when we were all blaming microsoft for not respecting our privacy, and all sorts of conspiracy theories where being made up. I was a windows user in that time. Now im trying to see if linux is a viable alternative. So far, i've been very dissapointed with the privacy department of ubuntu (linux). I would have suspected with all the politicos being so fond of linux, that at least privacy would be well respected. Now, lets compare my experience so far.
On windows we have:- IE -> but use firefox instead
- ntfs -> but have eraser which will deal with everything, including the $logfile (journal)
- indexer service -> but it is easily turned off in the GUI if it's on by default, which im not even sure anymore
- recent files list in software and the os -> software is individual on this, and on OS level, it requires a registry tweak, not very userfriendly.
- sending crash reports, etc... -> windows has always politely asked me whether to send these...
On ubuntu we have (what i have discovered so far, all enabled by default against my choice with no notification of it, nor centralised documentation on how to turn it off):
- recent documents -> setting the permissions to it couldn't be written anymore didn't do the trick for me. So far i havent been able to turn it off.
- locate indexer -> you can turn this of from the GUI
- nautilus history -> despite the preferences window, and searching internet, no way to turn it off
- ext3 -> see question above - can't find a way to be sure with the journalling
- apport sending crash reports -> Im not entirely sure, but i have the impression that this is sending stuff without asking me... knotify hasn't because it has always crashed when it popped up...lol
- automatic updates -> this has been enabled by default, but i havn't worried about it, and have not tried yet to turn it off...
now without a doubt im forgettin lots of stuff here, but so far i must say that contrary to my beliefs when switching towards linux, i feel more confortable on a windows computer to
limit ( i don't feel entirely safe at all ) the traces i leave behind. I really thought that switching to linux would free me from crap like recent documents and other histories, and indexers indexing the contents of my files. Not only is it hard or impossible to find how to turn certain things off, since all the nice privacy violating features are on by default, you have to remember to turn them off every time you install ubuntu again. That is error prone, and easy to forget something.
Am I the only one thinking all that? Am i condemned to using something like Security Enchanced Linux, which is being provided by the nice and privacy minded likes of NSA... Operating systems which will have the focus on security, which will then probably have even worse usability than ubuntu?
if you disagree that ubuntu is not very userfriendly, well, standards differ, but i don't mind writing down the first few hassles that spring to my mind... But let me tell you that in the few months i have been using ubuntu, i have spend many more hours running to the internet trying to find out how to solve bugs, and how to get things done than in the past ten years of using windows...
as a few examples,
- the installer of ubuntu has an advanced button in the end for grub settings. It provides wonderful explanation in the sense of: "grub help goes here", after which it installs a faulty menu.lst for grub unless you install it on the first hdd. This leads to a system that doesn't boot and you need to know about grub to rectify the settings before you can boot... wow great for the average user...!
- no playing mp3's or closed formats without internet support and too much time on your hands to solve it, by the way, after several hours now i still can't get xmms to play flac, even with all plugins installed... ( just as a side note )
- standard archiver comes without drag and drop support
- I've had to use tons of command line, which has to be given that it is powerful if you have the right person tell you what commands to use, but if you are home without internet, it's very user unfriendly.
- I've had tons of apps crashing, freezing, i've had the OS freezing, crashing, not booting, I've had gdm not starting after setting settings in the GUI, i've had tons of annoyances to keep it short
That are just a few examples...does it look like i want to step to an OS that is more secure but even less usable? NO!
Am I really the only one having all this problems, or should we try to solve all this somehow? well, HOW????? My experience in OS development is, well...'\0'...
Experience in debugging OS is building up though...I don't usually report ubuntu bugs, because I would have to report one everyday. That would lead to 2 things: wasting more of my time every day, and also it would feel like taking the piss, because with a system that crippled, we need to solve the bugs, not report them, innit?
greets,
naja
solutions welcome...
