Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 9:27:13 PST From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann at csl.sri.com> Subject: Unshredders
The recent Enron/Anderson shredding frenzies suggest that it is time for UNSHREDDING software tools to come out of the closet. It is certainly feasible to restore a boxful of shreds, particularly for ordinary course-grain linear shredders. The effort for cross-cut shredders would be significantly more difficult, but still possible -- although probably less acceptable in court. Anything with some natural language or graphical context is likely to be recoverable, using digram, trigram, etc., statistics for the likely linguistic base(s) and other context. However, in general, it is probably easier to start out with backup tapes and incompletely deleted disks. Easiest of all would be to install scanners and transmitters (or local storage) in the shredder mechanisms, because that would capture precisely the interesting materials deemed worth shredding.
There once was a swindler named Fred
Whose enterprise went in the red.
The lawmen he dreaded,
So papers were shredded,
And off to the races he fled.
<URL:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/21.88.html>