Deleting files is not enough. Here is how to properly erase hard drives.

The right software can help. So can some power tools.

Since the Help Desk launched last year, we have received loads of requests for the best ways to preserve different kinds of data in our lives, such as voice mails, conversations and even cherished home videos

Judging by the state of our shared inbox, though, the opposite is also true. Many of you are just as eager to find out how to make some of your data disappear entirely, whether it is splashed across social media or locked up in old hard drives sitting around the house.

“I have several old computers that I would like to donate to charitable organizations for schools,” one reader wrote in an email. “I have erased the information on the hard drive but have heard that simply deleting data does not remove it completely. Can you advise how to securely wipe data from a computer?”

Unfortunately, they heard right. Just because you deleted a file on your computer and emptied the recycle bin does not mean it is gone forever. Making sure those files are properly gone will take some extra work, but if you are considering donating, selling or even recycling an old computer with a hard drive in it, it is absolutely worth putting in the time.

“There are so many stories about people buying used computers online and recovering data,” said Andrés Arrieta, director of consumer privacy engineering at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It is kind of scary. It is all your life there.”

If you are serious about keeping your data away from potentially prying eyes, here is how to securely erase your old hard drives.

For a working computer

If you can actually fire up and use the computer you want to get rid of, consider yourself lucky. With the right software, the process can be mercifully simple. Thankfully, in some cases, the operating system that runs the computer already has everything you need to securely erase the hard drive.

Windows 8.1

Click the Settings icon, then click “Change PC settings.”

Click Update and Recovery, followed by “Recovery.”

Under the heading “Remove everything and reinstall Windows,” click “Get started.”

When prompted, select the option “Fully clean the drive.”

Windows 10

Click the Windows button in the bottom corner, then the Settings icon.

Click Update and Security, then “Recovery” in the sidebar.

Under “Reset this PC,” click “Get started,” then “Remove everything.”

When you get to the “Additional settings” screen, click “Change settings” and make sure the “Clean data” and “Delete files from all drives” options are enabled.

Windows 11

Click the Windows button in the toolbar, then the Settings icon.

Click on Update, then “Recovery” and select the “Reset PC” option.

Choose “Remove everything,” then click “Change settings” to make sure the “Clean data” option is enabled.

For computers running older versions of Windows like XP or Vista, you may need to turn elsewhere for the right tools. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also recommends using free apps like BleachBit for securely erasing individual files.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/08/how-to-secure-erase-your-hard-drive/

TOP KEK

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/07/08/how-to-secure-erase-your-hard-drive/

Sri Lanka’s Opposition Parties Reportedly Agree to Form Unity Government

Opposition parties in Sri Lanka have agreed to form an interim government of unity after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns, the Deccan Herald newspaper reports.

Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, was rocked by major protests on Saturday. President Rajapaksa was evacuated and is expected to resign on July 13. Opposition parties held talks on Sunday to discuss ways of getting Sri Lanka out of the grave political crisis.

"We agreed in principle to form a government of unity with all parties participation for an interim period," Wimal Weerawansa of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party's breakaway group said on Sunday, as quoted by Deccan Herald. "This will be a government where all parties are represented."

In his turn, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, another leader of the breakaway group, said that opposition parties need not wait for Rajapaksa's resignation on July 13.

According to Deccan Herald, party leaders will meet on Monday, July 11, to discuss the convening of the House for the transition of power for a new government, aiming for an interim government of all parties that will function until parliamentary elections.

Parliamentary Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana has already informed Rajapaksa of the decisions made at the Saturday emergency meeting of the party leaders, which was convened in response to the mass protests in Colombo. The letter called for the immediate resignation of President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and provided for convening the parliament within 7 days to appoint an acting president.

Speaker Abeywardana is expected to become the acting president, since both the president and prime minister are resigning.

https://sputniknews.com/20220710/sri-lankas-opposition-parties-reportedly-agree-to-form-unity-government-1097164858.html

>>16711335

Scare event loading?

Ukraine urges citizens to leave South due to counteroffensive plans

Kiev will launch its military action in the near future, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said

Ukrainian authorities are urging their citizens to leave the southern regions of the country, which are now under the control of the Russian army, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said on Sunday, as Kiev is preparing a counteroffensive in this direction.

According to Vereshchuk, the armed forces of Ukraine will launch a counteroffensive in the near future. “I don’t know in what numbers this will happen, but I know for sure that there should [in the cities of the alleged theater of operations] definitely not be women and children. It is clear that there will be active hostilities, including shelling, so we urge our citizens to urgently evacuate,” Vereshchuk added.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Alexey Reznikov, told The Times magazine that president Volodymyr Zelensky had given the order to prepare for an assault on the coastal regions of the south of the country. To do this, Kiev has gathered a million-strong army, and a plan is being worked out to attack those areas that are ‘politically’ important to Ukraine.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

https://www.rt.com/russia/558741-ukraine-plans-counteroffensive/

>>16711446

Ukraine has a million-strong army poised to retake South, ministry says

President Zelensky gave the order to retake the areas, Ukraine’s defense minister told The Times

As ordered by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, a million-strong fighting force has been amassed in the country to recapture its southern areas, which have previously been taken by Russian forces, defense minister Alexey Reznikov has told The Times.

“We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans,” he said in an interview published on Sunday.

“We’re people of the free world and with a real sense of justice and liberty. We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million strong,” the minister added.

Reznikov praised the British effort to help Ukraine, especially Ben Wallace, Britain’s defense secretary, who, according to him, was key to helping shift the approach from providing Soviet equipment to NATO-standard 155mm artillery, guided multiple launch rocket systems and high-tech drones.

This, Reznikov explained, will make up for heavy losses in the Donbass region in the face of mass Russian artillery shelling. President Zelensky previously said Ukraine was losing some 200 men a day in the area.

https://www.rt.com/russia/558740-ukraine-ready-to-recapture-south/

You wanna threaten that many people asshat? Really?

REP. KINZINGER: "In about 10 years, there's not going to have been a single Trump supporter that exists anywhere in the country. It's like Nixon. There were a lot of people that supported Nixon until he was out of office. […] He's, in essence, a cult leader."

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1546246804953567235

>>16711728

The clowns at 4chan are trying to get Anon's to distribute cp

Democrat-Aligned Operative Behind Twitter Account ‘PatriotTakes’ Gets EXPOSED – Connected to Soros, Other Major Dark Money Donors

An investigation by independent journalists Kyle Clifton and Greyson Arnold has exposed the anonymous social media account ‘PatriotTakes‘ connections to dark money, Soros funding, and Clinton PACs, as well as, shady hiring practices, family secrets, and much more.

PatriotTakes, which has more than 400,000 followers on Twitter, claims to “combat right-wing threats” to democracy by “research[ing], monitor[ing], and expose[ing] the extremism and radicalization of the far-right across the darkest parts of the internet.”

In other words, the account solely exists to dig up dirt by way of selectively editing clips and taking things out of context to whip up the hysterical cancel mob – aka. the woke ‘hitman.’ What we really see is that PatriotTakes is being used as a propaganda tool to circulate disinformation and create violent division against America First Republicans.

Throughout its existence, PatriotTakes has been propped up and aided by the powers that be, which has allowed it to amass a massive following online. The anonymous account is regularly cited by mainstream media outlets in an effort to promote its content and it recently began accessing massive amounts of capital after starting fundraising through its own Political Action Committee (PAC). Since April 2021, PatriotTakes has been soliciting donations via the radical Left’s ‘ActBlue’ platform, which “enables left-leaning nonprofits, Democratic candidates, and progressive groups to raise money from individual donors on the Internet by providing them with online fundraising software.”

The move to establish itself with fundraising capabilities allowed Kyle Clifton to search through FEC records for the PatriotTakes PAC and uncover the face behind the anonymous Twitter account – PAC treasurer Amy Wills Gray of Michigan.

Amy Gray is no stranger to running these types of organizations as she is listed as a treasurer for over half a dozen different Democrat Super PACs, all of which are registered to the same small town PO Box in her hometown.

As part of her work, Gray transacts millions of dollars in dark money deals through these PACs. For example, she received over a quarter-million dollars in donations from two of the most notorious dark money donors, George Soros and Amy Goldman Fowler.

Additionally, Gray’s ‘OpenSecrets’ employment history reveals deep ties to the Clintons. She worked alongside Hillary for over a decade through her PAC work and even under direct employment.

In addition to running PatriotTakes, Gray is currently in charge of the Super PAC ‘Ready For Hillary‘ where, interestingly, they made zero expenditures for or against any candidate.

Instead, expenses went solely towards salaries and consulting. This raises the question of money laundering and misappropriation of PAC funds.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/exclusive-democrat-aligned-operative-behind-twitter-account-patriottakes-gets-exposed-connected-soros-major-dark-money-donors/