[rescue] Clutter???

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Sunday, August 4, 2002 at 14:35:32 (-0400), Joshua D Boyd wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [rescue] Clutter???
>
> Well, sort it into the burn and recycle piles then.  Personally, I
> don't trust shredders.  Important papers aren't properly destroyed
> until I watch them burn.

You think your personal papers are worth the _millions_ of dollars it
would require before the results of a good shredder could be undone [*]
(never mind that a proper pulverizer makes it impossible for even
machine reconstruction)?  Get real.  Assuming you take minimal
precautions (i.e. don't put the recycling out the night before) you're
dreaming if you think any of your enemies even have the ability to
retrieve your shreds before they become pulp again, never mind have the
equipment (or even manpower, assuming you have a really dinky shredder)
necessary to scan and re-assmeble the images into readable form.

Remember that the cost of a shredder vs. the "cost" of burning (done
right it might even offset fuel costs! :-), but if that's all you factor
into your risk analysis then you've got a lot to learn.

BTW, speaking of outrageous risk analysis, I assume you've also factored
in not only the cost of the equipment necessary to electronically manage
the images of your formerly physically secure papers, but also all the
issues involved in keeping copies of them away from any network
connected computer.  I don't know how this might work out in your
personal affairs, but I know companies who once upon a time wouldn't
dream of allowing some documents out of a locked cabinet without an
independent audit trail of their movements (if not full supervision)
while now they don't seem to think twice of putting them up on the
intranet for "authorised" access (and I'm not talking about access from
otherwise isolated and trusted client systems, but from regular desktops
running unsecured M$ crap).

It's probably cheaper to even hop in a car and follow the recycling
truck to the depot to make sure your un-shredded papers are safely
smothered in a dump with everyone else's (or to drive them there
yourself at any time), and the cost to the environment of your little
drive might even be offset by the savings of not burning the paper and
not running a power-hungry decent shredder....  :-)


[*] I recently read a paper about the current state of technology for
reconstruction of shredded documents, but I can't find it at the
moment.  However I'm pretty sure I'm within an order of magnitude for a
decent shredder or any average commercial shredding service.


-- 
								Greg A. Woods

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