Robin Hood Software is by no means the only software company selling
security products based upon secure erasure. Be aware that none of this can be considered an endorsement,
since I use Linux, not Windows, so have no personal experience with most
of these products, but anyhow:
CyberScrub. Buy the
program that the guys at RHS dare to put on their
libel
page! I'd buy it almost on the general principle of the thing, even
though I have absolutely no need for the product (I don't browse from
Windows). The way I see it, if the guys at RHS hate it, it must be good.
Windows Washer also does
most of what EE purports to do, without the stigma of supporting
spammers, libelers, copyright violaters, and downright nutters.
SurfSecret is another program
that does most of what EE purports to do, without the stigma of
supporting spammers, libelers, and copyright violators.
Radsoft
has released a program, that, according to a
correspondent: "E3" - Evidence Eliminator Eliminator is
17.5KB on disk and that's it, and it's permanently extensible, so it will do
all EE does and anything more you want, and it uses Gutmann shred too.
[Note:
EE is, according to Radsoft, apparently over 1 megabyte of Visual BASIC
bloatware, and does not use Gutmann shred.]
PanicWare has various products
which appear to provide the same functionaliity as Evidence Eliminator --
without the stench, and for MUCH less $$$. [added 2/21/2002]
Note, however, that you do not by any means have to buy a program to
"clean" your disk. There are a large number of free and shareware programs
out there. One that is especially recommended by my readers is Tolvanen Eraser. Someone helpfully has
posted directions on how to use it
to the USENET.
Some other indexes of
free/shareware "cleanup" type programs are:
And dozens more sites where you can download shareware/freeware, but I'm tired of typing , go to Google and look them
up for yourself :-).
Now: Note that a secure erase program like any of these will NOT protect you
from hackers (they'll be in and take control of your system long before
you can erase any "sensitive" data), or from a large number of other
potential threats. They're only good for one thing: making sure that other
users of your computer don't see what you've done in the past. If you
don't want your kiddies to run "Undelete" on files in your cache directory
in order to see the XXX porn that
you've been browsing after they've gone to bed, one of these programs may help.
But that's pretty much all they'll do -- any claims to the contrary are
just overbloated hype from snake-oil salesmen trying to sell you a bill of
goods.
But all is not lost: It turns out that, as part of an overall security
solution, you CAN use one of these to secure your computer far more than
you'd think.
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