Lanza's computer found destroyed.

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http://news.yahoo.com/newtown-shooters- ... ories.html

This is strange as it leaves the question of what he was trying to hide.

Maybe they can recover data from what is left and discover a motive.

i wonder if they find a shattered hard drive, if they can put it back together again sufficient to extract useful info from it.

At Blackhat/Defcon, I've heard of some nearly miraculous drive recovery methods. And there's the online presence - profiles, messages, etc. It is very hard to get rid of online trails. I would be very surprised if the authorities didn't recover some useful data.

Depending on the hard drive and the way it is destroyed, there are certainly ways to forensically extract basic data from any data storage device. Even if the data was deleted, I'm sure there are ways to restore deleted data. I'm not sure if data could be recoverable is data shredder software was used. If this event was sociopathicaly planned, considering the "geek" status of the perpetrator, it could be in its plans... That's the extent of my Computer Forensics knowledge goes without being an expert...

It is very different to completely destroy the data on a hard drive. Dropping it into a blast furnace would likely work. Or you could make it very difficult to find by dropping it into the ocean where it is miles deep.

The real question is how hard does someone want to read the data. If there was some serious issue of national security, they might put out the effort to read it. Otherwise, I don't see why they would bother much. Whatever they can do relatively easily is probably about all they'll try.

could the digital wizards go so far as to collect all the broken pieces of the hard drive, scan the discs somehow and reassemble a virtual duplicate hard drive?

I think they will put a lot of effort into this. In a way, it is a matter of national security. Just from the inside.
The testimony of the two survivors will tell us a bit more about what happened as well.
I think it is important to try to understand why things like this happened even if it doesn't lead to future prevention. It's just so horrible, some sort of explanation would be welcome. With knowledge there is the chance to learn.

The fact he knew to destroy the HD gives away that he knew a thing or two about computers. Most people would have deleted everything and would have left at that, thinking they were safe.

I wonder if they had a VPN. If they didn't, I think the police could get a warrant for their ISP and look at what websites he visited. ISP's can do that when it comes to pirating, why not now?

Too small of pieces (or missing shards or large pieces) of hard drive platter would make it hard to recover any data. So would a powerful magnet, which can be made with household items. He probably tried to delete online files of his as well, such as email, but it remains to be seen if there are still backups.

I would really like to know your references for this information. Did the FBI tell you, did Alex tweet you? If it were online I am sure you can provide a link to prove you are not just talking out of your bottom.

Merle

I am sure they know more info. They just aren't revealing it.

yes
95% of current media says very little about anything
the usually BS

what draconian laws may come out of this, makes me shiver.

I appreciate the link to this aspect of news.

Physical damage to the platters is the issue.

Platters; (the magnetic media that holds the computers data in the hard drive)

The platters are machined flat to a very fine tolerance, so the head can read them.

If the head can not follow the vertical profile of the platter (much closer than the distance of human hair) then the data can not be read!

Spocks Daughter
interviewing her husband (23yrs data storage engineer)

Under normal circumstances, that is correct. If you REALLY want to read the platters, it should be possible by using a magnetic force microscope or similar techniques. It is thought to be possible to read data that has been overwritten as well.

Don't imagine for a second that the national security organizations do not have this available to them.

It is doubtful that those investigating this crime would have such techniques at their disposal.

Read Peter Gutmann, Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory, http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html

By the way, forty years ago it was even possible to read a magnetic tape visually (using a magnifying glass, of course) with the use of bit juice.

Ages ago I wrecked a HD to protect personal data, my daughter had been typing all manner of personal information into a PC. The PC died and it was a write off. When I came to throw away the PC, I made a point of pulling the hard disk out and breaking it open. If you bang the disks with a hammer and bend them it will make it very hard for anyone to ever read the files off the disk again.

I hold the view that the ultimate method of wiping a hard disk is to use a moderate sized thermite charge in a small flower pot. This would melt a hole through the disk, it would also heat parts of the disk above the curie temperture thus wiping the data forever. If you do that then it would stop anyone recovering the data.

Lets hope that the creep did not think of going for this method.