Using “shred” to Securely Delete Files

When you use the “rm” utility, you may think that you’re deleting a file, but you’re not. All you’re doing is removing the file’s index–or, inode number–from the hard drive. The file is still there, and can still be recovered, as long as you don’t overwrite the space that it occupies with another file. (Even then, recovery experts still might be able to retrieve it.)