NGO in a Box - Security Edition
DATA STORAGE, BACKUP AND DESTRUCTION TOOLS
It may be surprising news, but when you normally delete a file, it does not really get erased. Your computer simply marks that space, occupied by this file, as 'unused'. It is easy to recover data from these places and there are plenty of programs for recovering deleted files. There are many places on the computer where different programs leave traces of your personal information. For instance, the websites that you have recently visited or parts of a document you have been working on. This is why it is very important to understand these problems and to learn how to rectify them.
Eraser
it is used to permanently delete (wipe) sensitive data from your computer. Files and folders can be selected for wiping. This can be done on demand or scheduled to run at certain times. Note that your computer must be switched on at a specified time, otherwise the wipe will not happen. Eraser can also be used to create a 'nuke boot disk'. This can be used in emergencies when you want to delete everything from your hard drive quickly.
BCWipe
used to delete sensitive data from your computer. There are two categories of files that can be deleted using BCWipe. The first are user selected files and folders. The second type is information, voluntarily stored on your computer whilst you are browsing the Internet. This includes temporary Internet files, cookies and others (explained in the manual). Finally, it is possible to clear the free space left on your computer of the remnants of files that have been deleted.
See also some references to the security materials:
From the previous section, we already know that data deleted by clearing out the Recycle Bin is not always destroyed. There are tools for recovering this data. Most of these are quite expensive (when people are desperate to recover lost files, it is easy to charge them a lot for it!) but some are free. One such program is Handy Recovery. It analyses your hard drive and displays lists of deleted files that can be recovered.
Handy Recovery
an easy-to-use data recovery software designed to restore files that have been deleted from computers and floppy drives. The program can recover files damaged by virus attacks, power failures and software faults or files from deleted and formatted partitions. It can also recover files moved and emptied from the Recycle Bin.
There is no need to emphasise the importance of regularly backing up your data (particularly, to someone who has already experienced the loss of such important information from his computer). But apart from good backup and recovery strategies, it is important to store your backup in a secure location. See below for references and tools. Please also take a look at Miscellaneous tools chapter which includes additional programs.
Freebyte Backup
Freebyte Backup is a free backup program for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. It allows one to easily copy (and filter) a large number of files and directories from various sources into one backup directory. It is possible to backup all files found in the specified set of folders, or to have only certain file types copied. Easily fitting on a floppy disk, this program is portable and allows you to perform timely efficient backups wherever you go!
Zip Genius 6
a backup tool that allows you to both compress (zip) and decompress (unzip) your archive. By compressing the data, you are reducing its physical size on your computer (could be useful for those with little free space). It can also encrypt the archive for safe storage on your computer or removable media. It is a handy and free replacement for the more common WinZip program. There is also a useful function allowing you to email the archive directly from the program.