We need reform and I would be very happy to help here. I have detailed files that explain how "wiping" works. There isn't any scrambling involved. the read/write head writes 0000000 then 11111111 then 10101010 then 010101010101 and many more random numbers to the hard drive. The idea is that the magnetic surface of the hard disk has changed magnetic states so many times that is impossible to tell what the previous magnetic state was 7 writes ago. Generally "zeroing" a drive is good enough to defeat normal forensic analysis. If you are worried about magnetic force microscopy use the multiple writes. They crack open the hard disk in a sterile room (million dollar lab) and use a microscope and can "try" to read the margin of error on the multiple writes but it's nearly a fool's errand, if it's encrypted they just get more impossible to solve math problems, if you encrypt and do a 7 pass wipe it's safe. Once again I don't want to hide behind big words but I can give you the "real" scoop on this, and computer guy is just plain wrong -- there are a lot of bad products but PGP and TrueCrypt have been developed to make sure you're getting good cryptography. No one trusts their data to anything but this. Go find some no BS NSA guys or professional cryptographers (hard to find these guys) and ask them. There are a lot of computer guys that think they know cryptography but it's a separate and special science of its own. If you had used my suggestions the cops would have been crying at headquarters. I intend to put together a set of files, military and academic that really explain how cryptography works as part of my fan club. It's serious reading but serious players can read it and make up their own mind. Give me one instance where PGP or TrueCrypt have EVER been broken (it must have been installed and used correctly) surely there must be an article somewhere?

Obsolete but still unbreakable triple DES 128 bit current and
absolutely unbreakable AES 128 / 192 / 256 etc.

Several applications do contain encryption algorithms that are INTENTIONALLY WEAKENED to be export approved. The US Department of Commerce allows certain cryptographic products to be sold overseas. These products use short key lengths, have precompiled rainbow tables (a shortcut to attacking encryption) and so forth. Whenever you see products 128 bit and larger they are almost always a FELONY to export out of the US without a license. That is because THEY CANNOT BE EASILY DECIPHERED. If you're curious as to the cryptographic strength simply ask "Can this be exported?" if the answer is yes, put it back on the shelf.

In England it is a CRIME to refuse to give up the password to an encrypted file. If it's so easy why the law?

Brute Force Key Attacks Are for Dummies

TrueCrypt FAQ

TrueCrypt does not contain any mechanism or facility that would allow partial or complete recovery of your encrypted data without knowing the correct password or the key used to encrypt the data. The only way to recover your files is to try to "crack" the password or the key, but it could take thousands or millions of years depending on the length and quality of the password/keyfiles, on software/hardware efficiency, and other factors.

Yes. Note that there is no "back door" implemented in TrueCrypt. However, there is a way to "reset" volume passwords/keyfiles and pre-boot authentication passwords. After you create a volume, back up its header to a file (select Tools -> Backup Volume Header) before you allow a non-admin user to use the volume.

What do you think the US Army / CIA / etc. are using? ALL THEIR SHIT IS ENCRYPTED. So their shit is invincible and whatever we can get has backdoors? Bullshit. That's THE WHOLE REASON YOU CAN VIEW THE SOURCE CODE: TO PROVE THERE IS NO BACK DOOR.

Security experts: NIST encryption standard may have NSA backdoor

The security researchers have raised concerns about a potential backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm, which is documented in NIST's 800-90 publication about deterministic random bit generators.

DBAN.org: Darik's Boot and Nuke (commonly known as DBAN) is an open source project hosted on Sourceforge.[1] The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with random numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC (a PRNG). The Gutmann method is included with DBAN.

Its been alleged that there are programs that the government can obtain from the makers of these products that allow them to decrypt files that had been encrypted by a user. That is completely wrong. I supply the following articles to back up my statements;

PGP Encryption Proves Powerful

The next article is about a case of a guy arrested crossing the Canadian border into the US with a laptop computer. When customs looked at the computer they saw Kiddie porn and arrested him. However they made the mistake of shutting the computer down. When they restarted the computer later the files were now encrypted with PGP and unreadable and therefore useless as evidence. That case is proceeding in Federal court and a Federal judge has issued a ruling ordering the defendant to supply the password to decrypt the files saying he has no 5th amendment right to withhold the password. The reason they need the password from the defendant? Federal law enforcement was unable to break the encryption!

If Federal law enforcement couldn't decrypt PGP in order to pursue the Red Brigades or a child pornographer then they simply can't break it or they would have! If PGP or Truecrypt is properly installed on a clean machine and proper security precautions are used by the owner then it is unbreakable to anybody.