How to Delete Secret Emails from Microsoft Exchange Server

Submitted by andrew on Sat, 08/27/2016 - 17:09

Do you have private, secret, or confidential emails on your Microsoft Exchange server that you do not want someone else to see? One user of BleachBit seems to have mixed success with this task: on one hand some emails have been found, and on the other emails were deleted "so that even God could not read them."

To maximize the destruction of sensitive information you must physically destroy all storage devices that may have stored the information. Examples of physical destruction include thorough magnet degaussing followed by use of a hammer and blow torch, or just give it to a young child.

There are some scenarios where physical destruction is not possible or desirable such as: there are some emails you want to keep about yoga and wedding plans, you do not want to reinstall software, or you want to make it less obvious that you removed any information.

Assuming physical destruction is not possible, follow this guide to improve your results:

Shut the doors and curtains, and turn on loud music.
Using an email client such as a Blackberry smartphone delete the confidential emails. From the trash too.
PROTIP: After you think you are done deleting emails, double check. Do a search for the keywords classified, secret, and Benghazi and the top-level-domains .gov and .mil.
Wipe or destroy all BlackBerries and all other devices that were ever mail clients for the affected account.
From a separate computer download portable BleachBit for Windows. The download is anonymous, free, and leaves no money trail.
Unpack it onto a portable storage device such as a USB drive.
On the email server:

In Microsoft Exchange run a Page Zeroing operation to hide traces of the deleted emails, though this may still leave some traces.
Connect the portable storage device to the email server.
Disable and delete the Windows page file.
Stop the Microsoft Exchange and other network services.
Close all applications.
Start BleachBit.
Click File - Wipe Free Space, and use it for each fixed storage device. This will help eliminate residual traces of secret information on parts of the server's storage device that are marked not in use.
Wait a long time.
While you wait, clean the server's case, keyboard, and screen "like with cloth or something" to remove any fingerprints.

Destroy the portable storage device.
Destroy the replicated copies.
Delete all backups.
Do likewise on all remote email servers for all emails sent. For example if you sent emails to someone at state.gov, then you need to clean that email server too.

Because you probably do not have access to other people's email servers, the last step is the most difficult. It depends who you know.

Consult your Microsoft Exchange administrator for help. PROTIP: Consider what kind of witness would this person make.

Next time consider if you do not want someone to see private information, do not record it in the first place, and play by the rules.

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ROCKNROLLKID

Sat, 08/27/2016 - 17:54