DEF CON 23 - Zoz - And That's How I Lost My Other Eye...Explorations in Data Destruction (Fixed)

Zoz explores and tests various physical and chemical methods, including thermite and explosives, to quickly and securely destroy hard drives.

How much more paranoid are you now than you were four years ago? Warrantless surveillance and large-scale data confiscation have brought fear of the feds filching your files from black helicopter territory into the mainstream. Recent government snatch-and-grabs have run the gamut from remotely imaging foreign servers to straight up domestic coffeeshop muggings, so if you think you might need to discard a lot of data in hurry you're probably right. In their legendary DEF CON 19 presentation Shane Lawson, Bruce Potter and Deviant Ollam kicked off the discussion, and now it's time for another installment. While purging incriminating material residing on spinning disks remains the focus, the research has been expanded to encompass solid state storage and mobile solutions to your terabyte trashing needs. With best efforts to comply with the original constraints, the 2015 update features more analysis of the efficacy of kinetic projectiles, energetic materials and high voltages for saving your freedom at the potential cost of only a redundant body part... or two. Zoz is a robotics engineer, rapid prototyping specialist and lifelong enthusiast of the pyrotechnic arts. Once he learned you could use a flamethrower and a coffee creamer bomb to fake a crop circle for TV he realized there are really no limits to creative destruction.