Erasing a stored information pattern on a storage medium with progress indication

Abstract

According to an embodiment, a method is presented of erasing, in a document data processing device, a stored information pattern on a rewritable data carrier that is accessible by a data processing facility of said device, the document data processing device having primary processes for processing document data, wherein data may be stored on the data carrier, and secondary processes for erasing stored data, through overwriting a selected storage area of the carrier by a shredding pattern. According to the method, the primary and secondary processes are run asynchronously, i.e. the secondary processes are run in background, in order not to hinder the primary processes, and the progress of the erasing process is dynamically displayed for the operator to give an indication of an internal data security situation.

Description

[0001] This application is a Continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 11 / 014,980 filed on Dec. 20, 2004, and for which priority is claimed under 35 U.S.C. §120; and this application claims priority of Application No. 03078991.1 filed in Europe on Dec. 19, 2003 under 35 U.S.C. § 119; the entire contents of all are hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The invention relates to a method of erasing, in a document data processing device, a stored information pattern on a rewritable data carrier that is accessible by a data processing facility of said device, the document data processing device having primary processes for processing document data, wherein data may be stored on said data carrier, and secondary processes for erasing stored data, through overwriting a selected storage area of said carrier by a shredding pattern, wherein the method includes running said primary and secondary processes completely or partly ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a method for giving an operator an indication of the internal data security situation by automatically determining the overall progress of secondary processes in a device and displaying it on the device's display or the workstation of the system administrator. This allows users to instantly see if the data that should be removed are indeed gone. The invention also includes an apparatus for implementing this method."

Problems solved by technology

Background art has recognized that magnetic hard disks and other more or less similar storage facilities are increasingly vulnerable to reading of confidential data that is stored thereon.

A more serious type of attack may occur after physical removal of such a disk from a Personal Computer, from a Digital Access Controller associated to a printing facility, or other.

Deleting the file administration of the carrier will then be to no avail.

A single “data shredding” run is therefore insufficient when deletion of certain data is really important.

The present inventors have recognized that this prior art technology may offer enough protection against infringers, but that the long time required by the overall shredding will keep the data processing proper, e.g. printing, stalled for an often highly needed time interval and may therefore severely degrade system performance.

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