Some considerations for life in a digital environment 

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There is no single solution for keeping yourself safe online. Digital security isn’t about which tools you use; rather, it’s about understanding the threats you face and how you can counter those threats. To become more secure, you must determine what you need to protect, and whom you need to protect it from. Threats can change depending on where you’re located, what you’re doing, and whom you’re working with. Therefore, in order to determine what solutions will be best for you, you should conduct a threat modeling assessment.

 

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How to: Delete Your Data Securely on Windows

Download location: http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/download/windows

Computer requirements: Windows XP or higher

Versions used in this guide: BleachBit 1.6

License: GPL

Level: Beginner

Time required: 10 minutes to several hours (depending on size of files/disks to be securely deleted)

Please check the documentation for further information. http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/documentation

 

Likewise, it is almost impossible to securely delete an individual file on an SSD, because the way that SSDs write and delete files is scattered, and a user has no control over what an SSD is doing where. If that's the kind of security you're looking for, your best bet is encryption, which we will cover in a little bit.

 

The most popular option for protecting data, absent of robust secure erasing tools that scrub right down into the over-provisioned cracks, is to encrypt the SSD's contents. This way, if someone's coming after your data, the only thing you need to make sure is off the drive is the security key (128- or 256-bit AES is recommended) and your bits will be safe, unless whoever wants your data is up to cracking that code.

 

And finally, lest we forget, there are many more violent options if you don't intend to reuse the drive. Pulverization and pyrotechnics are both quite reliable.