Oh Look What You've Been Up To! (CyberScrub)

Member Name: Peter_P

Product:	CyberScrub
Date:	09/09/03 (1175 review reads)
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Computers store sensitive and confidential information - it has always been thus. But recent high-profile court cases involving email evidence and virus attacks that send portions of private documents to strangers have focused consumer and corporate attention alike.
Even those who take privacy seriously probably do little more than empty the Recycle Bin once they've deleted files to stop them being restored. But modern computer forensics tools can easily recompile deleted files from their fragmented remains on the hard disk. Beyond physically destroying the hard disk, though, there are plenty of utilities that claim to exceed military-grade standards for secure file deletion.

CyberScrub Professional 3 and Eraser 1.2 both use the military-grade marketing opportunity, but that's where the similarities end. You know you're leaving long-trousered land when Eraser warns that it requires Macromedia Flash during installation. Your faith is further weakened when the requirement is for a full-screen lightning animation, with sound, that pops up for a few seconds during a wipe function.

The gimmicky scratch card for the licence number only reinforces the conclusion that this product is aimed at the teenage market. Yes, Eraser 1.2 does exceed US military specifications, but so do most other wipe-and-wash utilities, including the original Eraser app by Sami Tolvanen (www.tolvanen.com/eraser). This is still the benchmark by which serious hackers measure secure-deletion apps, and it also happens to be open source and free.

This confusion with the name may not be deliberate, but it's unfortunate as there's little in Ci-pher's Eraser to endear it as a benchmark for anything but poor UI design. The interface is unintuitive, windows don't resize, and icons don't convey meaning. Configuration is limited, with security settings comprising Fast, Usual, High and Blast categories. Move to Internet preferences and it's a
ssumed you use either Internet Explorer or Netscape.

CyberScrub provides more choice, catering for AOL, MSN and Opera users too. Move into the security settings section and you can use the slower (but more secure) ISAAC random data generator, configure the size of the overwrite buffer and access detailed information of the wipe methods you want to employ.

Choose NAVSO P-5239-26 (MFM) level and you're informed that this is compliant with the Navy Staff Office Publication 5239 guideline, using three passes to delete data. Or how about the Gutmann 'stop hardware recovery' grade, which uses 35 passes to prevent both hardware-and software-recovery tools from recompiling the deleted data? You can even edit these or create your own wipe methods.

Eraser's lack of similar feedback to the user is worrying, especially when playing with your data at this level. Its simplistic approach to the interface applies to functionality as well. You can clear Recycle Bin contents, cover browsing click-trails and history lists, and wipe data previously erased using standard Windows methods. Like many such utilities, however, if you inspect the results of a secure deletion using a police-grade computer forensics tool such as EnCase (www.encase.com) you'll discover the original filenames have been left behind.

CyberScrub Professional addresses this issue by randomly renaming files before performing a secure wipe. Also, installation is straightforward and you get the feeling that you're using something rather more substantial than Eraser. The UI is mature in approach, with no Flash to be seen. Windows resize to suit, there's proper shell integration (allowing drag-and-drop for file deletion and Explorer's context menu options), and comprehensive help available. From the main CyberScrub window, you can compile a list of items for secure deletion by way of drag-and-drop and permanently wipe them from existence with one click
of the Erase All button.

The Professional version of CyberScrub comes with a Privacy Guard feature, which searches folders, monitors Internet usage, and removes the sensitive information often collected by your PC without your knowledge. Of course, the type of information collected and deleted remains in your control from the Settings window. Once you look into the depths of such functionality, you'll be impressed. CyberScrub has default options available to remove the sensitive data stored from a number of popular apps including AOL Messenger, ICQ, Windows Media Player, RealOne Player and KaZaA.

So CyberScrub wins at every turn, but despite being half the price of Ci-pher's Eraser, is it actually worth the money? I'm inclined to say yes, providing your needs warrant paranoia at this level. However, if you only want to clean your online tracks, 12Ghosts Wash (www. 12ghosts.com) is a cheaper option, and if you want to retain the core functionality without the cost, the original open-source Eraser is hard to overlook.

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