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In today's digital landscape, ensuring the security of data is paramount in IT. Secure data erasure entails removing information in such a way that it cannot be recovered under any circumstances. This article focuses on implementing secure data erasure on the CentOS 7 operating system.

Overview of Secure Erasure Tools

First and foremost, it's crucial to understand that standard file deletion does not guarantee irreversibility. Files are typically removed from the file system index, but the data itself remains on the disk and can be recovered. To ensure true data deletion, it's necessary to utilize tools that overwrite data with random bytes or specific patterns to render it irrecoverable.

1. Shred

Shred is a command-line tool available in most Linux distributions, including CentOS 7, that allows for secure file deletion by overwriting. Shred can overwrite a file multiple times with different patterns to prevent its recovery.

Installation and Usage of Shred

Shred is usually part of the coreutils package, so it should be pre-installed on most CentOS systems. You can use it as follows:

shred -n 3 -z -u /path/to/file

• -n 3 specifies that the file will be overwritten three times.
• -z adds an additional pass to overwrite the file with zeros to mask the deletion.
• -u finally removes the file.

2. Wipe

Wipe is another tool for secure file deletion that employs more complex overwriting methods than Shred.

Installation and Usage of Wipe

Wipe can be installed from the EPEL repository:

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install wipe

Usage:

wipe /path/to/file or directory

3. Secure-delete

The secure-delete package provides a set of tools for secure file deletion, including wiping free disk space, which is useful for securing data that has already been deleted but not securely overwritten.

Installation and Usage of Secure-delete

sudo yum install secure-delete

Tools included in the package:

• srm for secure file deletion
• sswap for secure swap space deletion
• sdmem for secure memory deletion

Example usage of srm:

srm /path/to/file

 

 

Secure data erasure on CentOS 7 can be effectively achieved using tools such as Shred, Wipe, or the Secure-delete package. It's important to note that after using these tools, the data will be irrecoverable, which is desirable for safeguarding sensitive information but requires careful consideration before deleting any data.