Is secure erasing at the hardware level trustworthy?

[bertfnarr]

Is secure erasing a hard drive at the hardware level to be trusted, even if it is recommended by the NSA?

Is it better or worse than using DBAN?

From PC World:

If you’re ever planning to sell your hard drive it’s essential that you do a secure erase first.

Yes, most people aren’t ignoble enough to attempt data restoration from used drives; however, it’s always prudent to securely wipe the drive instead of just formatting it because secure wipe really does render your data irretrievable (even by the NSA).

Why?

In 2012, computer forensics expert Yuri Gubanov released a 10 page research paper explaining how SSDs self-destroy court evidence.

Secure erase doesn’t merely flush cells in the flash chips, it permanently destroys all data at the hardware level. This includes special areas reserved for the system. In the case of my Samsung, the erase command even destroys the encryption key so any encrypted data becomes useless.

So which of these will be more secure?

DBAN short or Secure Erase in PartedMagic?

 

[kanewolf]

Either one should do the job. Ensure that it writes SOMETHING to the entire disk. Do you want to resell or trash the disk. If you just want to trash it then drill several holes all the way through the disk.

 

[bertfnarr]

I want to give the drive to somebody and I want to make absolutely sure that all traces are eliminated. A lot of people recommended DBAN but I would rather use secure erase as it is faster. But I want to be sure that the process is reliable. Is secure erase the same as writing a single pass of zeroes or is it it very secure?

 

[DataMedic]

A simple zero fill is all that's required to prevent any chance of data recovery. You should really read this article:
http://www.data-medics.com/is-data-ever-really-gone.html

It explains how ridiculous standards like DoD got started, and why even they are extreme overkill.

 

[DataMedic]

And to answer your original question, Yes secure erase is perfectly secure.

 

[bertfnarr]

And to answer your original question, Yes secure erase is perfectly secure.

Thanks. Is this unreliable information?