TOOLS Hard Drive Wipe

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rypt Or Completely Wipe Files With the Axcrypt Encryption Utility [Windows]

August 19, 2011By Ryan DubeAds by GoogleFree Electronics Recycle Free Hard Drive/Media Destruction Greater Portland Area 503-998-5357www.GreenCenturyOnline.netSony® VAIO® Laptops Save Big on VAIO® T Series Laptops. 3rd gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor.store.sony.com/VAIOReal Data Recovery in PDX No data/No charge. Flat rates. Free pickup October (503)453-3892www.stentoriandata.netTry Hulu Plus Free Instantly Watch TV Shows & Movies. Try It Free.hulu.com/plusDuring the course of my various research projects, investigating stories of corporate and government corruption, there are plenty of situations when I need to send someone a sensitive file that I don't want anyone else intercepting and reading.There are actually plenty of other circumstances people may need to send an encrypted file, such as academic researchers sharing highly-sensitive information with each other over the Internet, corporate communications, or just friends that are discussing very private matters.The great thing about sending messages, images or videos using some form of encryption is that it doesn't matter if you're using a public network to transfer the file; unless you have the password and/or the key file to decrypt the file – you can't open it.There are plenty of apps that will open up encrypted connections, such as Tim's article on encrypting IM chats, or Danny's article on encrypting Dropbox data, but really the most secure way to communicate information or send data is by encrypting the file on your computer, and having the recipient decrypt it on theirs. One of the easiest and fastest utilities for doing this is AxCrypt.

Encrypting Files Right from Windows Explorer

The beauty of AxCrypt is that it installs as sort of a Windows Explorer plugin – and works as part of the right-click context menu. Just right click on a file, and you'll see the AxCrypt menu as one of the many options. You can choose one of the encrypt options, create a key-file as part of the encryption process for that file, or shred and delete the file.By the way, if you ever have the need to permanently delete files from your computer, this is the app to do it. It's a full wipe of the file, meaning that the file isn't just deleted from the Windows file system. The application will actually write erroneous data over the memory addresses where the file is stored, before wiping the deleted file from the Windows file system. This makes it virtually impossible to recover the file through most standard computer forensics methods for file recovery.Ads by GoogleWindows 7 Pro $132.99 Full Retail Download 100% Authentic Add up to 5 usersshop.advantageittech.comAndersen Windows We Carry & Install Andersen Windows Licensed Bonded & Insured Call Now!LifeTimeWindows.net/Andersen_WindowFree Cell Phone Tracking Find more sources/options for Free Cell Phone Trackingwww.webcrawler.comRecover deleted photos Data Recovery made easy. Restores over 350 file types. Test it now!www.oo-software.comWhen you choose to encrypt the file, you have several options. You can encrypt the file itself, you can create an encrypted copy of the file that requires the recipient have AxCrypt installed on their computer to decrypt it, or you can encrypt it as an executable, which includes the AxCrypt decryption utility – so the recipient doesn't need to install anything at all, they just need to know the passphrase.If you choose to encrypt a copy, it'll create a new file with the default extension .axx. The recipient will open this file with AxCrypt by typing in the correct passphrase to open it.If you choose to encrypt it as an executable, you can just send over the exe file to any recipient, and they just have to double click on the file itself, enter the password, and the file will open.This is perfect if you're sending sensitive info to someone that you don't usually communicate with, as they will likely not have AxCrypt installed. They'll need need the correct password to DeCrypt the file. On the receiving end, the same screen will open when the user tries to open the file – it always asks for the passphrase and the Key-File. If you only set a passphrase when you encrypted the file, that's all the user needs to enter. If you've also created a key-file, then they'll need to browse to that file as well, or they won't be able to decrypt.When you create a key-file as part of the encryption process, it's important to save it to removable storage media. This turns a USB stick or portable hard drive into a sort of hard "key" to open the file. So you could email someone the encrypted file, and then send them the USB stick. Only the person with the correct passphrase and that USB stick that has the key-file will be able to decrypt the original file. This is one of the most secure methods for transferring information to someone, and is nearly impossible to hack.On the recipient end, if the person has AxCrypt already installed, decrypting a file is as simple as right clicking on the file and clicking "Decrypt". AxCrypt recognizes whether a file is encrypted or not, and will change the context menu accordingly. The recipient can also do a full "Shred and Delete" of the received file after reading it, so that no record of the file remains anywhere.Another nice feature of AxCrypt is that it comes with a standard set of command-line parameters. You can run the "axcrypt" command either from the application directory, or you can set the Windows PATH environment variable to the AxCrypt directory so that you can run the "axcript" command straight from the command prompt without going to the AxCrypt directory first.Through the command line, from a Windows Script or from your own program, you can run the axscript command to either encrypt or decrypt files. In the example above, I've encrypted a file called file1.txt, and renamed the encrypted file as "securefile". There is a fairly long list of parameters you can use to do some pretty cool things in script with this utility.So, if you ever have the need for transferring sensitive information in a safe way, give AxCrypt a try and let us know what you think. Is its integration with Windows convenient enough, or are there other features you'd like to see included? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.Image Credit: Robert Linder

5 Tools To Permanently Delete Sensitive Data From Your Hard Drive [Windows]

September 21, 2011By Tina SieberIn a recent article I explained why it is impossibleto recover data from a hard drive after overwriting it. In that post I mentioned that simply deleting files or formatting your hard drive typically does not remove or overwrite files at all, meaning they can still be recovered.If this information made you a little nervous, let me connect the pieces for you and show you how you can terminally and permanently delete files, not only from your hard drive, but also from other re-writable storage devices.

Low Level Formatting

The kind of formatting most of us do is known as high level formatting, and whether you perform a quick format or not, your data won't be deleted. What high level formatting does is set up the file system from scratch and in the process the information where files were stored is removed.Low level formatting on the other hand re-initializes the disk and resets the values of each and every magnetic domain, which represents one bit, to zero. We have thoroughly covered formatting on MakeUseOf and if you would like to look into the details, I recommend the following articles:How To Format A New Internal Hard DriveThe Difference Between Windows Full Format & Quick Format [Technology Explained]How To Completely & Securely Erase Your Hard Drive [Windows]

Darik's Boot And Nuke

Low level formatting isn't 100% efficient and may leave traces of data. If you wish to wipe an entire disk before you dispose of it, I recommend Darik's Boot and Nuke, a boot disk that will automatically and completely delete data on any detected hard disk.A walkthrough of Darik's Boot and Nuke can be found in this article:How To Completely & Securely Erase Your Hard Drive [Windows]

CCleaner

If you are already using CCleaner, you should know that it contains a Drive Wiper.Open CCleaner and go to > Tools > Drive Wiper. You can wipe only free space or the entire drive, and you can choose up to 35 passes, meaning data will be overwritten with random strings of binary code 35 times. This very complex overwrite should make it impossible for anyone to restore the data originally saved in this space. When you're happy with your settings click > Wipe and wait patiently.

SDelete

Microsoft made it very easy to not delete files thoroughly. To make up for this potential security hole, they released a free command line utility called SDelete. This doesn't make removing data any more convenient, but it can be considered a step in the right direction. Unfortunately it is a very small step, since Microsoft fails to provide instructions on how to properly open SDelete in the first place. Well, that's what MakeUseOf is here for.Download the ZIP archive containing the tool and extract the folder.Click > [WINDOWS] + [R] to open the Run window.Type > cmd and click > OK to open the command prompt.Then move the > SDelete.exe file to the directory > C:\User\yourusernameNow type a command in the command prompt, for example > sdelete -z to cleanse free space on your C: partition. A full list of commands is shown in the screenshot below.

Eraser

Eraser is a freeware and open source security tool to completely remove data from your hard drive. It can overwrite data several times using randomized patterns of binary code. It essentially is a file shredder.Eraser is more convenient than CCleaner's Drive Wiper because it can delete and shred single files, rather than just wiping all free space on a drive, and it is integrated with Windows Explorer (right-click menu). Moreover, Eraser provides you with a host of advanced settings, for example different file and space erasure methods, the option to replace erased files with other files to allow plausible 'deniability', and schedule erasure of files, folders, recycle bin, or unused disk space.The tool is also available as a portable app called EraserDrop Portable. It is part of the PortableApps suite.We have covered Eraser in its (and MakeUseOf's) very beginnings four years ago. Both have come a long way since. Feel free to check out the article here - How To securely Retrieve and Delete PC Files

Other Tools

There are several more file shredders that can securely delete files from your hard drive. Some of them were covered in the article 4 File Shredders to Make Deleted Data Unrecoverable. If you need to secure sensitive data without deleting it, you should seriously look into encryption and the article Encrypt Or Completely Wipe Files With the Axcrypt Encryption Utility [Windows] provides an excellent start.Do you have nightmares of what someone might find on an old hard drive you discarded?Image cre

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