SOURCE -JUNE 16, 2006 | PORTLAND, Ore.

— In 2001, an American spy plane collided in the air with a Chinese fighter

and was forced to land on Chinese island. Since then,

researchers have been looking for a way to quickly erase computer hard drives

to deny access to sensitive intelligence data.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta),

working with L-3 Communications Corp. (New York),

said they have developed a technique for quickly erasing hard-disk drives.

The team reports development of a prototype fast-erasure system to prevent

sensitive information from reaching enemy eyes.

At the time of the U.S.-China incident, there was no way the U.S. crew

could quickly erase hard drives on the surveillance aircraft before landing on Chinese soil.

The Chinese eventually gained access to U.S. military secrets.

Erasing a hard drive usually takes hours using special procedures

that repeatedly scramble information on a disk drive.

Still, given unlimited resources and time,

special magnetic snooping techniques can often recover at least some of the original information.

The researchers sought a method that not only securely erased information

but also performed the erasure during emergency situations where minutes

, not hours, were available.

The researchers concluded that permanent magnets are the best solution[...]