Securely deleting files in Ubuntu
Simply pressing delete on a file or folder won’t remove it from your hard drive. The reference will be removed from the file system but it will still exist on your hard drive until the space it occupies is used and it is overwritten. This can pose a problem as people can recover potentially sensitive information.
There’s an application called “shred” in Ubuntu for securely deleting files. It overwrites where the file is located many times, ensuring it can’t be recovered. Shred can be integrated into Nautilus easily using Nautilus Actions. Put the following into a Terminal window:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions
Then go to:
System > Preferences > Nautilus Actions Configuration
And import the following file:
And then finally open up a Terminal window, and enter the following:
nautilus -q
That’ll kill all Nautilus windows open so that the change can take effect. You’ll now be able to right-click on a file or folder, and select “Shred” which will securely remove it from your system.
