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And though he considers himself an expert in digital forensics, he says some government agencies have access to data recovery tools that even he doesn't have. Burning a device into a molten pile of plastic, however, tends to do the trick.ĭemirjian has done work for NASA, IBM, Harvard and MIT, police organizations, the Department of Transportation and more. People have tried bashing their phone with a hammer and throwing laptops into the ocean, but even then, a skilled digital forensics specialist could likely recover what they need. Which may be why some resort to extreme measures to destroy digital evidence.
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If a person is desperate to wipe their device, they can have it professionally erased, Demirjian said, but it can be costly. "It takes a very long time and its very expensive, but some things are recoverable." "Even if it is overwritten, it is still recoverable, but not everything," Demirjian said. Even if an individual has maxed out their memory time and time again, investigators may still be able to retrieve deleted items.
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