Cleaning Hard Drive

[JohnCarthy]

I use my pc at home for compiling documents for work. I have had no bother with it until recently I was hacked and some of my files were taken which are very important for the business. I plan on deleting the files straight away from now on but I hear that the files can still be found on the hard drive even after I have deleted them. I am wondering is there any program available that will remove traces of ALREADY DELETED files?

 

[btvillarin]

<A HREF="http/www.tolvanen.com/eraser/" target="_new">Eraser</A>

Bryan

<A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)

 

[vagabond]

Hey bt, this was always a bugging question of mine. How do you know if you've been hacked?

Virus symtoms I've seen and even viruses located and isolated. How in sam's name do you know if you've been hacked???

Thanks
VAGABOND

<font color=blue> You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it!</font color=blue>

 

[btvillarin]

Hacked, as in people taking files from your computer, or if they're leeching files off one of your ports? Either way, I would say that if you check your firewall's logs, if there's activity when you weren't even on the computer. Or, if your hard drive or processor is active constantly, and you're not defragging or running an intensive program.

I'm online 24/7 (running a webserver for my status site), and I've <b>never</b> had a problem. I have the following implemented:
<i><font color=blue>
BBIagent (Linux floppy based router) on an old Pentium I computer
• Stealthed ports

Panda Antivirus Platinum

Script Sentry
• Prompts you before running <b>any</b> script or registry edit

Eudora (email client)
• Safer than Outlook

Ad-Aware

Spybot Search & Destroy

Common sense
</i></font color=blue>
The last one is the one that will keep you safe overall. Don't install stupid stuff, don't let websites install things onto your computer unless you read through carefully and see what it is (which is mostly likely unsafe), and to have good research. Asking questions is the best thing you can do, because it's most likely that someone else will know the answer to your question.

For example, when there's a new software program, I always cross-check other sites to see how people have rated a software product. I ask in my forums. I scan it for virii, and check it's EULA, TOS, and Privacy Policy. Overkill? That's sometimes what it takes...

Granted I don't have a software firewall (somewhat lazy), but I should...I'm just not sure of the extra difficulty configuration (if any) might cause me. But, the more levels of protection, the harder it will be to get into your machine.

(You can find all these software recommendations either in my software database or the forums.)

How's that bud?

Bryan

<A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)

 

[vagabond]

Thanks Bryan,

This wasn't a question to pick your brain. After I sent you the post, I went directly to BBIagent. I'm interested also 'cause one thing I've noticed after Zone Alarm is that it takes a while before I can build the next page that I click to. I thought there was something wrong with my hookup (ADSL)

I also sent a question to BBIagent in that I wanted to know if there are any issues known about dual boot systems 'cause from what I read BBIagent is compatible with every OS and I'm running 98SE and LINUX parallel.

That was a fast answer by the way. I sent that post from germany. Some people just don't sleep do they?

Thanks
VAGABOND

<font color=blue> You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it!</font color=blue>

 

[btvillarin]

No problem, vagabond.

That was fast, eh? Actually, I got Eudora checking my email every 3 minutes. I was about to leave, and saw that I had something...and I just <i>had</i> to reply.

Anyways, I was trying to be thorough. I don't know...I felt compelled to write all that. I guess that'll be a future article.

If you disable ZA and try surfing, it might surf faster. I guess it just checks the pages and stuff before it goes on, or your AV software is being very thorough. I'm only saying the latter from experience with Panda AV. When I had Permanent Internet Scan enabled, browsing was a bit slower, so I disabled it and now it's faster. (Just if you want to check that out...)

BBIagent has nothing to do with the operating system the computers on your network. BBIagent is on a standalone machine, right? If so, then you shouldn't have any problem.

What's the time difference from Germany to California, USA? :lol:

Bryan

<A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)

 

[vagabond]

I'll check that out. Thanks

As far as the time difference, Germany to the East Coast is 6 hours so from here to Cali has got to be 10 ahead. As I right this it's 9 o'clock in the evening so it must be 11AM your time. Think that's right. I always go by GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) Germany and most of Europe is 1 hour ahead.

<font color=blue> You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it!</font color=blue>

 

[btvillarin]

Ah, oky doky.

<A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=329" target="_new"><b>My System Rig</b></A> (courtesy of <A HREF="http/www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A>)