What is the best Secure Delete Software for Mac Solid State Drives?
With regards to privacy protection, deleting a file on your PC seems to be the ultimate way to do so. Over the years, Apple Computer users have relied on functions such as “Secure Empty Trash,” whereby the actual file is overwritten at least once or more on the hard drive with random data.
The world of technology has changed, and with Mac computers being solely dependent on SSDs and not HDDs, old-fashioned file-shredding applications become outdated and may even damage your computer.
Why Old File Shredders Don’t Work?
In order to understand the procedure of deleting data from your SSD in your Mac computer, it is necessary to know how the flash drive works.
- Flash Translation Layer (FTL): While in hard drives the data is stored in fixed magnetic sectors, there is a special layer of the SSD which stores the data location.
- Wear Leveling: While setting the program to overwrite the selected file block seven times, the FTL translates your command and starts overwriting the “random data” in other physical sectors so that the SSD drive doesn’t wear out excessively. Therefore, the data of the file is usually stored in the same place prior to garbage collection of the drive.
- Risks of Overwriting: In the case of performing multiple file shredder operations on your SSD, you overload the drive with the unnecessary data and thus reduce the life of the flash memory without providing any protection.
The Native Standard: FileVault and APFS Encryption
Because of how flash controller technology works, third-party software to securely delete single files becomes redundant and useless in today’s macOS systems. Apple has already implemented secure deletion at the OS level via FileVault and Apple File System (APFS).
FileVault (Full Disk Encryption)
The only way to protect a Mac SSD absolutely is to leave FileVault on from the very start.
- How it works: Every single piece of data written to the SSD in your Mac is encrypted with hardware-accelerated 256-bit AES encryption.
- The “Delete” Effect: When you throw a file in the Trash and then empty it, the data stays in flash memory cells but still remains encrypted. It becomes completely unreadable noise without the user’s password or recovery key.
Crypto-Erasing through macOS Disk Utility
Once you decide to sell, exchange, or recycle your Mac, there is no point in using any special third-party secure delete software for internal storage. You need to perform a Crypto-Erase:
- Boot your Mac into Recovery Mode.
- Open Disk Utility.
- Delete the main volume with APFS format.
Given that the drive is automatically encrypted, wiping the volume makes the master encryption key on the chip inaccessible. Suddenly, millions of gigabytes of information become un-decryptable mathematically; the SSD is sanitized within no time, and that too, without causing any undue stress on the flash cells.
When to Use Third-Party Automated Solution?
Although encryption of internal storage can be better done with native macOS encryption tools, certain situations do arise where software is needed—like when you need to target specific files, manage secondary storage or wipe external drives on which hardware encryption was not available. This is where MacMister Data Wipe for Mac steps in.
Features of the Application
The MacMister Data Erasure tool is a specialized software created specifically for the macOS environment and aimed at safely deleting files forever.
- Specific File/Folder Wiping: As compared to the built-in format function, MacMister offers the option of adding files and folders to wipe. Thus, the user can choose specific files or folders containing sensitive information to be wiped out without wiping the entire disk.
- Additional Filters: Among the filters available in the software, the user can apply certain date range, file masks, etc. in order to find certain files and wipe them.
- Diverse International Standards of Disk Shredding: For external disks and other non-SSD disks which can be processed using the multiple-shred mode, MacMister provides more than 15 international standards for wiping files and folders. They vary from one single zero/random overwrite to three-, seven-, and thirty-five-pass overwrite of data.
Best Practices When Using Third-Party Erasers on SSDs
In case you decide to run MacMister Data Removal on your Mac SSD:
- Avoid Multi-Pass Overwrites on Flash Memory: As SSDs manage write operations using wear leveling, refrain from performing multiple passes on your internal SSD drives since it generates unnecessary write operations. Single pass or focused folder overwrite should be done only on confidential material that needs to be deleted locally.
- External Drives: MacMister is a gem of a tool while erasing any leftover files from the external SSDs and USB flash memory.
Epilogue
There is no point in simply dragging files to the file shredders any more. The best method in case of new Macs’ SSDs will be to combine them: employ FileVault for real-time security, utilize macOS Disk Utility for crypto-erasure, and use specialized programs such as MacMister Data Removal Tool for selective file destruction.