Secure Delete Automator Workflow

John — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:30:13 +0000

What do you do when you’re finished with a document on your computer and need or want to get rid of it? For most people the answer is to delete the file. That is, after all, the most logical thing to do, right? What a lot of people fail to realize is that simply deleting a file does NOT remove it from your hard drive. A person skilled in data recovery can easily recover that data unless it has been overwritten several times. Deleting the file only removes references to the file from the filesystem. It does not physically remove the data from the drive, however, instead it just allows the computer to overwrite the space where it had been stored.

There are, however, ways you can securely delete files from your computer. These tools will overwrite the space on the hard drive where the file resided, usually 7 or more times (and often the number of passes is configurable). This morning my boss brought to my attention the fact that one such utility is available by default on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The command, srm, is used via the command line and will securely remove your files.

David (my boss) helpfully created an automator workflow, however, which when saved as a service on your machine will add an option to the right-click context menu in Finder that allows you to securely delete the file.

I – being in a sharing mood – have shared this automator workflow HERE for your enjoyment.

A few notes: In the actual shell command – pay attention to the switches after srm. Specifically, you may want to change the s in “-rsf” to an m ( so -rmf). The s will do a single pass at overwriting the file, while m will do a full 7 passes.

This is provided as-is, though I will answer any questions I’m able to. As always – use at your own risk, if it breaks your stuff that’s not my fault.

Special thanks to David Meade for providing the automator workflow.

[Update: I forgot to mention that you can also securely delete files by moving them to your trash folder, and selecting "Secure Empty Trash" from the finder menu...]

[Update 2: A friend of mine has pointed out that you can set it up so that Finder uses srm to securely empty the trash by default, to do this go the the Finder menu -> preferences -> advanced, and check the box for Empty Trash securely. Enjoy]

Missing Link » Automator

Secure Delete Automator Workflow