{"id":1691,"date":"2019-07-09T10:56:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T08:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpethzprd.ethz.ch\/its\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2019-07-09T11:33:36","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T09:33:36","slug":"it-finds-what-do-you-associate-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/2019\/07\/09\/it-finds-what-do-you-associate-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"IT Finds: What do you associate with it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Join us on a journey into the past: what is\nthis device and what do you personally associate with it? Tell us your story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"440\" height=\"312\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/files\/2019\/06\/nl_id_img_191_fundstueck_02.jpg\" alt=\"Our IT find piece to guess with\" class=\"wp-image-1692\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/files\/2019\/06\/nl_id_img_191_fundstueck_02.jpg 440w, https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/files\/2019\/06\/nl_id_img_191_fundstueck_02-300x213.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 440px) 100vw, 440px\" \/><figcaption><em>Our IT find piece to guess with<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For some, it&#8217;s obvious. For others, it&#8217;s\nless than clear. This device is a tape eraser that protects material from\nfurther unauthorised use by erasing all content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Weircliffe Bulk Eraser Model 8 has been\nstationed at ETH Zurich&#8217;s computer centre since at least 1981. It was used to\ndelete round 7-track tapes (later 9-track), which were relinquished by a user\nand assigned to a new user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Data security was already lived and\nbreathed back then: the deletion had to ensure the new user couldn&#8217;t access the\nprevious user&#8217;s data or programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">At least 38 years of service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even today, the tape eraser is still in use\nat ETH Zurich:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For the tape robot&#8217;s cassettes<\/li><li>For internal and external hard\ndisks<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Basically all storage media based on\nmagnetisation can be erased in this way. They simply have to be small enough to\nfit into the slot. Because it is not just the magnetisation of individual\nmagnet traces that are overwritten, even forensic analysis can&#8217;t recover the\ncontent after such a brutal erasure procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Attempt to erase a USB stick<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We tried to erase a USB stick with this\ndevice. However, since its memory technology is based on (electrical) flash\nstorage, the magnetic fields didn&#8217;t affect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A find on the web<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>On the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Internet (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kitplus.com\/FORSALE\/Converters_and_Processing\/EncodersDecoders\/Weircliffe_Bulk_Eraser_Model_8_tape_Eraser\/Weircliffe_Bulk_Eraser_Model_8_tape_Eraser\/133627.html\" target=\"_blank\">Internet<\/a> you can see that three years ago, a tape eraser like this was apparently offered and also sold for \u252c\u00fa760.00.<\/li><li>YouTube: Electromagnetic tape eraser for MCs, tapes, carts, Betamax, VHS <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tCUWDV6xMiA\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tCUWDV6xMiA<\/a> <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tape eraser was discovered years ago by\nDaniel Locher, an ITS Server employee and thus part of System Services of IT\nServices. He was in a warehouse of the computer centre in the RZ building.\nBruno Loepfe, part of High Performance Computing at the Scientific IT Services\nof IT Services, has compiled the details of the find for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Your story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What links you to this device? Did you or\nyour institute own one? Or do you only know it from a museum or from hearing\nabout it? We look forward to your stories and comments on this post. And if you\nhave an IT Find for our inside|out section, please contact us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Contact<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The inside|out Editorial Team<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ethz.ch\/services\/en\/organisation\/departments\/it-services\/inside-out.html\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.ethz.ch\/services\/en\/organisation\/departments\/it-services\/inside-out.html<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"mailto:insideout@id.ethz.ch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">insideout@id.ethz.ch<\/a> <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Join us on a journey into the past: what is this device and what do you personally associate with it? Tell us your story!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[261295,261294,104205,260185],"class_list":["post-1691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-eth-history","tag-eth-journey-into-the-past","tag-insideout","tag-it-find"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/its\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}