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END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
BY ACCEPTING, YOU (ORIGINAL PURCHASER) INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE
TERMS. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO ACCEPT THE PRODUCT UNDER THESE TERMS, YOU
MAY CHOOSE NOT TO ACCEPT BY SELECTING "I decline..." AND NOT INSTALLING THE
SOFTWARE.
1. The license is to the original purchaser only, and is not transferable without prior
written permission from Acronis.
2. The original purchaser may use the software on a single computer owned or leased
by the original purchaser. You may not use the software on more than one machine
even if you own or lease all of them, without the written consent of Acronis.
3. The original purchaser may not engage in, nor permit third parties to engage in, any
of the following:
A. Providing or permitting use of or disclosing the software to third parties.
B. Providing use of the software in a computer service business, network, timesharing or
multiple user arrangement to users who are not individually licensed by Acronis.
C. Making alterations or copies of any kind in the software (except as specifically
permitted above).
D. Attempting to un-assemble, de-compile or reverse engineer the software in any way.
E. Granting sublicenses, leases or other rights in the software to others.
F. Making copies or verbal or media translations of the users guide.
G. Making telecommunication data transmission of the software.
Acronis has the right to terminate this license if there is a violation of its terms or default
by the original purchaser. Upon termination for any reason, all copies of the software
must be immediately returned to Acronis, and the original purchaser shall be liable to
Acronis for any and all damages suffered as a result of the violation or default.
ENTIRE RISK
THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS
WITH YOU THE PURCHASER. ACRONIS DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SOFTWARE OR
ITS FUNCTIONS WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE
SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT ANY DEFECTS WILL
BE CORRECTED. NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES — IN NO EVENT SHALL
ACRONIS OR ITS VENDORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING,
WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR THE LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY LOSS)
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ACRONIS
HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite is an integrated software suite that provides
confidentiality and protects standalone PCs or machines connected to the
Internet.
The following capabilities of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite ensure PC
confidentiality:
Clean-up of spyware that secretly operates on a user’s PC
Proactive protection from spyware threats
PC hard disk and Windows partition clean-up of any traces of user actions
Unwanted pop-up ad blocking for convenient Web browsing
Guaranteed confidential data destruction on selected hard disks or disk
partitions
Unlike other software, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite fully removes evidence of PC
usage through the use of guaranteed data destruction methods.
Introduction
It also increases PC performance by cleaning out temporary files.
Why is it necessary to keep PC work confidential?
Working with a PC creates a number of serious security problems for users:
While installing software on your PC, you might unknowingly install spyware
— programs that secretly change system settings, collect and transfer
personal information to external addresses, and perform other unwanted and
uncontrollable actions.
You have created and deleted many files on your computer. You do not want
anyone to view them. But is a deleted file really gone? No! The problem is
that deleted files can be easily recovered under the Windows operating
system to gain access to information a user would like to conceal.
Windows and the most widely used browsers, Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator, provide very weak protection on keeping trace Internet data
private.
While working with a PC, you leave thousands of bytes of evidence showing
your actions (records in various system files) that you don’t even know
about. This could include user names and passwords.
When replacing your old hard drive with a new, higher-capacity one, you
unwittingly leave lots of important and confidential information on the old
drive that can be recovered, even if you have reformatted it.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite provides a solution to all of these problems. It
assures complete confidentiality of your PC and Internet actions and prevents
situations that threaten your computer and general security.
Besides methods corresponding to national standards, Acronis supports
predefined methods proposed by widely known and authoritative specialists in
the field of information security:
Peter Gutmann’s method – data on a hard disk is destroyed with 35 passes
Bruce Schneier’s method – data is destroyed with seven passes
The suite also supports simple but fast methods of information destruction that
zero all sectors on a single hard disk pass.
Another major feature of this version is the opportunity for you to create your
own methods for data destruction.
The most popular at the moment is the U.S. Standard, Department of
Defense 5220.22-M method. Therefore, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite utilizes it
by default for all user trace removal operations.
Detailed information on data destruction standards is given in Appendix A «Hard
Disk Wiping methods»of this guide.
What's new in Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 8.0?
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite has many new features that make it a fully
integrated software suite. They include:
User-friendly and simple wizards to quickly remove all traces of user actions
from PCs
Improved Spyware Removal Wizard
Spyware Shield – continuous spyware protection
Frequently updated spyware definitions base
Windows prefetchdirectory clean-up
System password clean-up
Applications traces clean-up
Additionally, improvements have been made to provide even more convenience.
Chapter 4«Internet Clean-up» — describes Web and
Chapter 5« System Clean-up» — offers detailed information on how to clean
Chapter 6«Application Traces Clean-up» — describes how to remove
Chapter 7«My privacy tools» — provides general information on additional
Chapter 8«Acronis Pop-up Blocker» — describes how to use the Acronis Pop-
Chapter 9«Acronis Drive Cleanser» — provides tools for guaranteed data
Appendix A«Hard Disk Wiping methods» — contains more detailed
Appendix B «Spyware threats glossary» — contains supplemental information
e-mail traces removal.
up your Windows system of all user traces
application usage traces from Windows using the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard.
tools and wizards that provide the means to completely delete data from
your PC, either with the suite installed, or just from a bootable diskette.
up Blocker.
destruction on selected drives or partitions.
information about methods of guaranteed confidential data destruction on a
PC hard disk.
on the most popular spyware and spyware parasites that Acronis Privacy
Expert Suite protects you from.
System requirements
To take full advantage of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you should have:
a PC-compatible computer with a Pentium CPU or equivalent
32 MB RAM
a floppy or a CD-RW drive
VGA monitor
a mouse (recommended)
Microsoft Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/;
Microsoft Windows NT Server/2000 Server/2000 Advanced Server/Windows
2003 Server.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher for correct Pop-up Blocker operation
Software use conditions
The conditions for use of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite are listed in the supplied
«License Agreement». The registration card that came with the software is your
proof that you legally purchased the suite. Each registration card has a unique
number.
Based on current legislation, the «License Agreement» is considered as a
contract between the user and software vendor. Violation of the contract may
lead to prosecution.
Illegal use or distribution of software is a violation of the law and will be
fast PC clean-up with limited security in mind, select any methods that
overwrite in a single pass, two passes or three passes
If you haven't set the common data destruction method yourself, Acronis
Privacy Expert Suite will default to the most popular and generally accepted one:
U.S. Standard, DoD 5220.22-M algorithm (See detailed information in
Appendix A«Hard Disk Wiping methods»).
2.5.3 Scheduled tasks
The scheduled clean-up (see section 0 «Scheduling tasks») might lead to errors
if data to be deleted is used by other programs.
You can set up Acronis Privacy Expert Suite for such situations by selecting from
the following variants:
Ignore
Retry
Cancel
Ask user
2.5.4 Explorer enhancements
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite provides an easy way to delete files quickly and
clean up folders through the Windows Explorer context menu.
To enable these options and to add the context menu commands, mark the
Enable Explorer Enhancements check-box.
The context menu also allows you to clean up the Windows Recycle Bin securely.
For that matter, clean-up preferences can not only include the data destruction
method, but also the destruction method wildcard. Scheduling tasks
Each PC clean-up variant of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite can be executed either
manuallyo r automatically as scheduled.
Having set PC clean-up as a daily procedure to be performed, for example, at
the end of a workday before powering off the PC, you can be sure that all
evidence of your PC and Internet activity will be removed each day.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite features a built-in scheduler.
2.5.5 Invoking the scheduler
To set up the clean-up schedule, click the Schedule task sidebar button in the
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window.
Having invoked the Scheduler, you will need to select a clean-up variant to
perform at the selected time.
Having selected any variant, click Next to set additional parameters on the
second wizard page.
The scheduled clean-up might lead to errors if data to be deleted is used by other
programs.
You can set up Acronis Privacy Expert Suite for such situations. See section Global settings Æ Scheduled tasks.
2.6 Using the Log
The Log keeps track of all actions performed by Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. It
can provide you with a complete history and reasons for any problems that have
occurred.
Working with Acronis Privacy Expert Suite
Log view window
Log settings enables you to keep track with different degrees of detail. You can
select one of the following variants:
Everything
Important information – error and spyware messages
Nothing
There are many programs that, once on your PC, start working without your
knowledge. Such software can do such things as collect information or change
user settings for the Internet or your system. These programs are called
spyware. For more information on the main spyware types, see Appendix B of
this guide.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite enables you to completely clean your PC of spyware
and protect it from future intrusions.
How spyware gets on your PC
One of the most common ways that spyware gets on your PC is from new
software installations, in particular freeware and shareware. When you install
such applications, they can implement software modules that collect information
on Web sites you visit, your PC configuration, etc.
Another common source of spyware is peer-to-peer networks, gaming portals
and other Web services.
Sometimes spyware is installed by commercial applications whose makers want
to collect additional information about users, their habits and preferences.
How to recognize spyware?
Though in many cases spyware works without users’ knowledge, there are signs
that you should watch for:
Hard drive LED is blinking even when no programs are run or documents
open
Your PC receives and sends unknown information via the Internet though you
aren’t using a Web browser or e-mail client
The home page setting of your browser has changed without your consent
When you work with certain programs or visit certain Web sites, you see ads
or pop-ups
If you notice some of these activities, you need to run Acronis Privacy Expert
Suite to find and eliminate spyware performing unauthorized operations on your
PC.
If you need to:
Find and remove any type of spyware from your PC, run Spyware removal
(see section 3.1.1 «Removing spyware with the Spyware Removal Wizard»)
Prevent spyware from getting on your PC, enable and set up Spyware
Using Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you can find and remove spyware from your
PC. To do this, select and click Spyware removal in the main program window.
After that, you can either initiate spyware removal with the Spyware Removal Wizard at once, or set up this wizard.
In the Settings of this component, you can select the spyware type to clean up.
By default, it is set to remove any type of spyware.
3.1.1 Removing spyware with the Spyware Removal Wizard
To run the Spyware Removal Wizard, select Remove Spyware Now in
the Spyware Removal window.
Spyware Removal Wizard
After the wizard is run, your PC will be checked for spyware. The results will be
shown in the righthand part of the wizard window. You will see what spyware
applications are found and which files and registry keys are related to them:
Information about particular spyware applications will be available in the
lefthand part of the wizard window after you select spyware from the list with a
mouse.
All spyware found will be automatically checked for removal. If you, want to
leave some spyware applications or their components, uncheck them in the
resulting list. (Some common applications are sometimes identified as spyware.
This option gives you the ability to keep those programs and/or settings.)
After you finish forming the list of spyware to be removed, click Next. In the
next window, you will see the final script of spyware removal operations.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite not only enables you to remove spyware, but also
prevent it from getting on your PC in the first place. This is provided by Spyware
Shield — a special tool that monitors your system for suspicious applications and
components.
3.2.1 Enabling Spyware Shield
You can enable Spyware Shield during Acronis Privacy Expert Suite installation
(for more details see Chapter 1 «Installing Acronis Privacy Expert Suite»). If you
haven’t done this already, you can enable it any time you want.
To enable Spyware Shield, select Run spyware shield now in the Spyware
Shield category:
Spyware shield window
After Spyware Shield is enabled, you will see its icon in the Task Bar Notification
Area.
3.2.2 Setting up Spyware Shield
You can change settings of Spyware Shield using its setup wizard.
General options
In the Spyware Shield General options window, you can specify types of
spyware to protect your PC from:
Known threats only – Spyware Shield will only prevent spyware which is
Having set up Spyware Shield, you can browse the resulting settings in the
final script and click Proceed if everything is correct.
All Spyware Shield settings will be active until you change them again.
3.3 Spyware definitions updates
Offering you timely and reliable protection from new spyware released as often
as every day, Acronis Privacy Expert launches the special Spyware definitions updates service.
It enables users to obtain the most up-to-date information and spyware
protection from Acronis website.
When you purchase Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you also subscribe to spyware
definitions updates. When the subscription period is over, you can renew your
right to use Spyware Definitions Updates service at Acronis website.
3.3.1 Product registration
Remember that spyware definitions updates service is available for registered
users of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite only!
You can register you copy of the program at Acronis website following this link:
After you select the update mode, you will be prompted to enter the account
information you provided while registering your copy of Acronis Privacy Expert
Suite. This includes valid email address, password and program serial number
(or subscription serial number if you are renewing your subscription to spyware
definitions update service):
The greatest threat to the privacy of your work has the Web as its source. You
have read about it in the Introduction, which also describes system sections
where traces of user actions are stored. The cache, cookies, visited pages and
history form autocomplete lists and passwords are stored in different places on
your system, depending on your browser. You can clean up all of them with
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite
Internet Clean-up.
The Internet Clean-up category enables you to:
Completely remove all traces of your Web and e-mail actions using the
Internet Clean-up Wizard Clean up separate system components related to Web actions, i.e. clean
up visited pages list, empty cache, etc
Fine-tune the Internet Clean-up Wizard to suit your needs
4.2 Using the Internet Clean-up Wizard
The Internet Clean-up Wizard enables you to completely remove all traces of
your Web and e-mail actions.
It enables you to:
Clean up Temporary Internet files that are stored on your PC hard disk
while you browse the Web to speed up loading next time you visit the same
page
Remove cookies, small text files created on your PC when you visit a Web
site. Such cookies might contain user name and other information entered
during, say, registration at the Web site
Remove downloaded files (ActiveX elements) that can be installed secretly
while you browse Web sites. ActiveX elements enable Web pages to act like
applications and dynamically change content. At the same time, ActiveX
elements might be used maliciously to gain access to your PC
Clean up visited Web sites history
Clean up Web site addresses typed in the address field
Remove form autocomplete lists stored by the browser to speed up filling
various forms
Remove passwords stored by a browser to speed up authorization on Web
sites
Securely remove e-mail messages (from Microsoft Outlook and Outlook
Clean up the contacts and address book of your e-mail client
Internet clean-up wizard
After you run the wizard, it will search your PC for traces of any Web actions.
The search results will be shown in the righthand part of the wizard window.
After the search is finished, you will be able to manually select elements to
remove:
Preview Internet data to clean
After you select the elements to remove, you can run the clean-up.
To set up the Internet Clean-up Wizard, select Configure Clean-up
Options in the Internet Clean-up window.
To enable or disable any Internet Clean-up component, set or remove its
Enable this component flag.
In the Internet Clean-up Wizard settings window, you can also set clean-up
parameters for each system component. Some of these parameters are related
to all components.
4.3.1 «Data Destruction Method» settings
This setting defines the method of guaranteed data destruction to use to clean
up a given component.
By default, all components that have such a setting have it set to Use common method (See section 2.5.2 «Clean-up Options» of this guide»).
If you need to set a custom method of data destruction for a component, choose
Use custom method for this component and then select your preference.
4.3.2 «Internet Browsers» setting
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite automatically locates all installed and supported
browsers and removes any of their Web activity traces by default.
If you have Internet Explorer installed, the structures to clean belong only to the
currently logged-on user.
Netscape Navigator and Mozilla support personal profiles. Without additional
settings, Acronis Privacy Expert Suite cleans either the «default profile» (if it is
the only one), or the profile of the currently logged-on user.
If you need to clean up only one browser:
1. Set the checkbox near its name only (for example, Internet Explorer),
unchecking all other boxes.
2. If you use a version of Netscape Navigator (or Mozilla), you should also
select a personal profile (by clicking Profiles… link).
4.3.3 «Address» setting
The «Address» setting is meant for cleaning up the Internet cache, cookies, last
visited pages, typed URLs, and passwords).
Address settings
You can also enter any full or partial Internet addresses separated by a
semicolon as a value of the «Address» setting; for example:
*worldsoccer.com; *formula1.com;
All files downloaded from sites fully or partially corresponding to at least one of
the addresses entered will be removed.
Attention! The length of a search string with full or partial Internet addresses is almost
infinite! You can enter any number of addresses like
1. clean up the Internet cache (last visited pages list) of all files (lists,
elements) downloaded from a specific Internet address (site), enter
addresses or their parts separated by a semicolon; for example, like:
*CompanyA*;*XYZ123*
As a result, all files downloaded from www.CompanyA.com
, www.xyz123.com
will be deleted.
2. clean up the Internet cache of only specific file types downloaded from a
specific Internet address (site), enter addresses separated by a semicolon;
for example, like:
*companya*.jpg;*companya*.gif;*xyz123*.jpg;*xyz123*.gif
As a result, only *.jpg, *.gif files will be deleted, while *.html files, for example,
remain in the cache.
Entering the Internet addresses list, you can browse files (visited pages)
selected according to the list. To do this, click Show URLs. You will see the
window with selected addresses. They will be deleted during the selected
component clean-up.
If you want to cancel the deletion of any address in this list, uncheck the
corresponding box.
4.3.4 «File» settings
The «Files» setting provides temporary filenames to clean with Acronis Privacy
Expert Suite and can be used with a search string.
Under the Windows operating system, a search string can represent a full or partial
filename. A search string can contain any alphanumeric symbols, including comma, *
and ? symbols, and can have values similar to the following:
*.* – to delete all files from the Recycle Bin – with any file names and
extensions
*.doc – to delete files with specific extension – a Microsoft document file in
this case
read*.* – to delete all files with any extensions, and names beginning with
«read»
read?.* – to delete all files having five-letter names and any extensions,
names beginning with «read»; the fifth letter is random
The last search string, for example, will result in removal of read1.txt,
ready.doc files, but readyness.txt will remain with its longer name (excluding
the extension)
forums, etc.
You can enter several different search strings separated by a semicolon; for
example:
*.bak; *.tmp; *.~~~;
All files with names corresponding to at least one of the search strings will be
deleted.
Attention! The length of a search string with full or partial filenames is almost infinite!
You can enter any number of filenames or their parts like
a semicolon.
*.tmp, read?.* separated by
4.3.5 «Data filter» settings
This setting will enable you to set clean-up parameters for certain autocompleted
form fields. For example, you can set it so each time the Internet Clean-up Wizard is run, fields with your personal information (name, surname, e-mail
address, etc.) will be cleaned up.
You can use * and ? wildcards to set this parameter:
john@* - clean up all e-mail addresses that contain ‘john’ before the @ sign.
4.3.6 «E-mail clients» settings
Here you can specify e-mail clients to clean up using settings above.
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite currently supports MS Outlook and Outlook Express
e-mail clients.
4.4 Cleaning up separate Internet components
If you don't want to remove traces of all components listed in the Internet
Clean-up (e.g. to save time), you can separately clean any component in this
category.
In that case, all global settings of the Internet Clean-up Wizard will be valid
for separate components as well.
To clean up separate components, select them by clicking Clean-up
component in the Internet Clean-Up category and run the Internet Cleanup Wizard.
In the System clean-up section, you can clean up components (folders, files,
registry sections, etc.), related to general system tasks. These Windows
components retain evidence of user PC activity, so they too should be thoroughly
wiped to maintain confidentiality.
5.2 Using the System Clean-up Wizard
The System Clean-up Wizard enables you to securely remove all traces of
your PC actions stored by Windows.
It performs the following:
Removes temporary files from respective Windows folders
System Clean-up
Removes custom folders/files from any media connected to a PC
Securely destroys data in the Windows Recycle Bin
Cleans up free space of any traces of information previously stored on it
Cleans up opened/saved files history
Cleans the list of user system passwords
Cleans the Windows prefetch directory, where Windows keeps the
information about programs you have executed and run recently
Removes traces of file searches on connected disks and computers in the
local area network
Destroys registry backups (Windows 98/Me only)
After you run the wizard, it will search for any traces of user actions stored by
Windows. The search results will be available in the righthand part of the
wizard window.
To enable or disable any System Clean-up component, set or remove its
Enable this component flag.
In the System Clean-up Wizard settings window, you can also set clean-up
parameters for each system component. Some of these parameters are related
to all components.
5.3.1 «Data Destruction Method» settings
This setting defines the method of guaranteed data destruction to use to clean
up a given component.
By default, all components that have such a setting have it set to Use common method (see Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods»).
If you need to set a custom method of data destruction for a component, choose
Use custom method for this component and then select your preference
(see Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods»).
5.3.2 «Files» settings
The «Files» setting provides temporary filenames to clean with Acronis Privacy
Expert Suite and can be used with a search string.
Files settings
Under the Windows operating system, a search string can represent a full or partial
filename. A search string can contain any alphanumeric symbols, including comma, *
and ? symbols, and can have values similar to the following:
*.* – to delete all files from the Recycle Bin – with any file names and
*.doc – to delete files with specific extension – a Microsoft document file in
this case
read*.* – to delete all files with any extensions, and names beginning with
«read»
read?.* – to delete all files having five-letter names and any extensions,
names beginning with «read»; the fifth letter is random
The last search string, for example, will result in removal of read1.txt,
ready.doc files, but readyness.txt will remain with its longer name (excluding
the extension)
You can enter several different search strings separated by a semicolon; for
example:
*.bak; *.tmp; *.~~~;
All files with names corresponding to at least one of the search strings will be
deleted.
Upon entering the «Files» setting value, you can browse the search strings in the
registry selected by Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. To do this, click Show Files.
You will see the window with file names searched for. These items will be
deleted.
Attention! The length of a search string with full or partial filenames is almost infinite!
You can enter any number of filenames or their parts like
a semicolon.
*.tmp, read?.* separated by
5.3.3 «Computers» setting
The «Computers» setting cleans up the registry search strings for finding
computers in the local network. These strings keep information on what
interested you in the network. These elements should also be deleted to
maintain confidentiality.
The «Computers» setting is the same as «Files». The «Computers» setting is a string
that can contain any number of full or partial computer names separated by a
semicolon. The deletion of computer search strings is based on a comparison with the
«Computers» setting according to Windows rules.
If you s i m p l y need to delete all local network computer search strings (suitable in
most cases):
1. Select Find Computer List.
2. Check the Enable the Find Computer List cleaning box.
3. Select the «Computers» setting; leave its default value unchanged – *.
As a result, all computer search strings will be deleted from the registry.
Upon entering the «Computers» setting value, you can browse the search strings
in the registry selected by Acronis Privacy Expert Suite. To do this, click Show
Computers. You will see the window with full and partial computer names
searched for in the network. These items will be deleted.
Most Windows applications can store lists of recently opened files, as a
convenience to users.
However, in some cases you might want to remove any trace that you used a
particular program.
In this situation, the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard will preserve your
privacy. This wizard cleans up the recently used files list of most popular
Windows applications, including office, multimedia, graphics applications and
system tools.
Application Traces Clean-up category enables you to:
Completely remove all traces of your work with various Windows applications
using the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard Fine-tune the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard to fully meet your
needs.
Application traces clean-up wizard
6.2 Using the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard
After you run the wizard, it will search for any traces of user actions stored by
Windows. The search results will be available in the righthand part of the
wizard window.
After the search is finished, you will be able to manually select elements to
remove:
After you select the elements to remove, you can run the clean-up.
6.3 Application Traces Clean-up Wizard settings
To set up the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard, select Configure
Clean-up Options in the Application Traces Clean-up category.
To enable or disable any Application Traces Clean-up component, set or
remove its Enable this component flag.
You can set the following parameters in the Application Traces Clean-up Wizard settings window:
6.3.1 «Data Destruction Method» settings
This setting defines the method of guaranteed data destruction to use to clean
up a given component.
By default, all components that have such a setting have it set to Use common method (see Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods»).
If you need to set a custom method of data destruction for a component, choose
Use custom method for this component and then select your preference
(see Appendix A «Hard Disk Wiping methods»).
In these settings, you can see a list of Windows applications, traces of that the
Application Traces Clean-up Wizard can destroy. If an application is flagged,
all traces of its usage will be deleted. Unflag an application if you want to keep
its recently opened files list.
The «Files» setting provides temporary filenames to clean with Acronis Privacy
Expert Suite and can be used with a search string.
Files settings
Under the Windows operating system, a search string can represent a full or partial
filename. It can contain any alphanumeric symbols, including comma, * and ?
symbols, and can have values similar to the following:
*.* – to delete all files from the Recycle Bin – with any file names and
extensions
*.doc – to delete files with specific extension – a Microsoft document file in
this case
read*.* – to delete all files with any extensions, and names beginning with
«read»
read?.* – to delete all files having five-letter names and any extensions,
names beginning with «read»; the fifth letter is random
The last search string, for example, will result in removal of read1.txt,
ready.doc files, but readyness.txt will remain with its longer name (excluding
the extension)
You can enter several different search strings separated by a semicolon; for
All files with names corresponding to at least one of the search strings will be
deleted.
Attention! The length of a search string with full or partial filenames is almost infinite!
You can enter any number of filenames or their parts like
a semicolon.
My privacy tools offers additional means of providing user data privacy and
work security:
File shredder – securely destroys any files or folders you select so they
can't be recovered.
Acronis Drive Cleanser – securely destroys data on a selected partition
and/or disk so it can't be recovered.
Bootable Media Builder – creates bootable diskettes or CDs to securely
destroy data on PC hard disks even without having Acronis Privacy Expert
Suite installed.
Paging file cleaner – cleans up the Windows swap file.
Acronis Pop-up Blocker – blocks unwanted pop-ups.
My privacy tools
My privacy tools window
This chapter describes the File Shredder and Paging File Cleaner tools. The
usage and setup of Acronis Pop-up Blocker and Acronis Drive Cleanser is
described in their respective chapters.
If you need to:
Securely destroy files or folders you select, run File Shredder. See section
7.2 of this guide, «Using File Shredder», for instructions on how to use it.
Clean up the Windows swap file – run Paging File Cleaner. See section
7.3 of this guide, «Paging file cleaner», for instructions on how to use it.
Block unwanted pop-ups – set up and run Acronis Pop-up Blocker. For
more information on how to use it, see Chapter 8 of this guide, «Acronis
Pop-up Blocker».
Securely destroy data on selected partitions and/or disks so it can't be
recovered, run Acronis Drive Cleanser. For more information on how to
use it, see Chapter 9 of this guide, «Acronis Drive Cleanser».
7.2 Using File Shredder
The File Shredder enables users to select files and folders quickly in order to
destroy them permanently.
This wizard features the familiar Windows Explorer interface.
To run the folders/files cleaner, do one of the following:
Select File Shredder in the My privacy tools category
Select Tools Æ File Shredder in the main menu
Select File Shredder buttonin the main menu
Using File Shredder
7.3 Paging file cleaner
The Paging file cleaner allows you to remove any traces of PC or Internet activity
permanently.
A paging file is a file on a hard disk (e.g. C:\win386.swp in Windows 98/Me or
C:\pagefile.sys in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server) used by Windows as
additional memory when that is required in order to run applications.
This file might contain personal information that a user is unaware is there. For
example, if a user opened too many Internet Explorer windows and entered
personal information in one of them, then tried to switch to another Internet
Explorer window, the operating system might lack enough physical memory for
all the windows and store the contents of the previous one in its paging file. If a
user closes browser windows after this, there is a strong possibility that
confidential information will have been left in the paging file.
To run the Paging file cleaner, do one of the following:
Click the Paging file cleaner icon in the My privacy tools category of the
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window
Select Tools Æ Paging file cleaner in the main menu
Click Paging file cleaner on the toolbar
After you run Paging file cleaner, you can set it to clean up the swap file at
each reboot by clicking Enable.
If you want to disable paging file clean-up, select Disable.
While browsing some Web sites, you might have unwanted pop-up windows
open along with the window you want. Generally, pop-ups contain bothersome
advertising. They slow down your Internet connection speed and increase the
traffic you pay for. On some Web sites, pop-ups are used to provide extra
information or as locations where the user needs to input information.
8.2 Acronis Privacy Expert Pop-up Blocker
Acronis Privacy Expert Pop-up Blocker automatically prevents windows from
opening, except the one the user wants to view.
If you haven’t activated Pop-up Blocker during installation, you can do it anytime
by clicking Run Pop-up Blocker. Then the Pop-up Blocker icon will appear in the
system tray.
After that, you will be able to invoke Pop-up Blocker settings by double-clicking
the icon.
8.3 Pop-up Blocker settings
You can invoke the Pop-up Blocker settings window in the following ways:
By selecting Pop-up Blocker in Settings on the sidebar of the Acronis Privacy
Expert Suite main window
By selecting a similar item in the main menu
By double-clicking the Pop-up Blocker icon in the system tray with the left
mouse button (this works only if Pop-up Blocker is already running).
8.3.1 Acronis Privacy Expert Pop-up Blocker general settings
In the general settings section, you can enable or disable the following:
Enable Acronis Privacy Expert Pop-up Blocker
Load it at startup
Show the Pop-up Blocker icon in the system tray
Check on its status in the IE status bar
8.3.2 Last visited pages
The Last visited pages section is an exact representation of Microsoft Internet
Explorer History.
In this list, you can select Web sites to move to either the White or Black list.
Moving a Web site to the White list means that you want to accept pop-ups from
this site. Moving a site to the Black list means that you always want to block this
site’s pop-ups.
8.3.3 Blocked URLs
In this section you can see what Web sites contained pop-ups that were blocked.
You can move any of these to either the White or Black list.
8.3.4 White URLs
If you want to cancel Acronis Privacy Expert Pop-up Blocker for a particular Web
site, you can move it to the White (approved) list:
By clicking "New" and entering it manually
By selecting the address and clicking "Add" in the Last visited pages, Blocked
If necessary, you can use Acronis Pop-up Blocker to block a Web site by adding
its address to the Black (rejected) list. In this case, you will see "Acronis Privacy
Expert Pop-up Blocker: Black URL link – navigation stopped" message in the
browser when trying to access this Web site.
Many operating systems do not provide users with sufficient data destruction
tools, so deleted files can be restored easily by simple applications. Even a
complete disk reformat can’t guarantee permanent confidential data destruction.
Acronis Drive Cleanser solves this problem with guaranteed and permanent data
destruction on selected hard disks and/or partitions. It allows you to select from
a number of data destruction methods depending on the importance of your
confidential information.
9.2 Working with Acronis Drive Cleanser
Acronis Drive Cleanser allows you to perform the following:
clean up selected hard disks or partitions using preset methods
create and execute custom user methods of hard disk clean-up.
Acronis Drive Cleanse
Acronis Drive Cleanser is based on a wizard that scripts all hard disk operations,
so no data destruction is performed until you execute the complete script. At any
stage, you can return to the previous stages to select other disks or partitions or
data destruction methods.
First, you must select the hard disk partitions where you want to destroy data.
The list of PC hard disks with partitions
To select a partition, click the corresponding rectangle. You will see a red mark
in the upper right corner indicating the partition is selected.
You can select an entire hard disk or several disks for data destruction. To do
this, click the rectangle corresponding to the hard disk (with a device icon, disk
number and capacity.)
You can select several partitions simultaneously located on different hard disks
or on several disks.
Click Next to continue.
In the Final actions window, you can select actions to be performed on the
partitions selected for data destruction. Acronis Drive Cleanser offers you three
variants:
Leave partition as is — just destroy data using the method selected below
Delete partition — destroy data and delete partition
Format partition — destroy data and format partition (default)
Final actions window
In this example, the switch is set to Format. This will allow you to see the results
of partition and data destruction, along with the reformatting of the partition.
9.3 Using preset data destruction methods
Acronis Drive Cleanser utilizes a number of the most popular data destruction
methods that are described in detail in Appendix A «Information wiping methods
used by » of this manual.
After you select a method, Acronis Drive Cleanser will perform all actions
necessary to destroy contents of the selected partition or disk. After this is done,
you will see a message indicating the successful data destruction.
Acronis Drive Cleanser offers you another useful capability — to estimate the
results of executing a data destruction method on a hard disk or partition. It
features an integrated DiskViewer hard disk browsing tool.
The aforementioned methods offer various levels of confidential data
destruction. Thus the picture you might see on disk or partition depends on the
data destruction method. But what you actually see are disk sectors filled with
either zeros or random symbols.
Acronis Drive Cleanser gives you an opportunity to create your own methods for
wiping hard disks. Although the software includes several levels of data
destruction, you can choose to create your own.
9.4.1 Creating custom methods
To create a custom method of hard disk wiping, select and mouse-click the
«Custom…» line from the drop-down list in the Method selection window. Please
pay close attention to the load method option in the same drop-down list.
The selection of custom method creation
Click the Next button to continue.
The window with the script for wiping a hard disk partition (the partition and/or
hard disk was selected during a previous step) shows after the selection of one
of the predefined wiping methods. This time the Custom method wizard will be
started and you will see the Number of passes window.
As an example, let’s create a simple custom method similar to the U.S. Department
of Defense standard. This standard assumes three passes for a hard disk during
which different symbols are written to it, plus one more pass for verification — i.e.
four passes total.
The window with number of passes of the custom method
Remember, the predefined wiping methods perform from one (fast method, the
Russian standard) to up to 35 passes (Peter Gutmann’s method).
You may enter any value into the spinner field of the wizard window with the
keyboard or mouse. For our example, enter 4 into this field.
Click the Next button to continue.
9.4.2 Method definition: template
The Method definition window shows you a template of the future method; the
list contains many elements, including the defined method at the previous stage.
The method definition window
The window has the following legend: The first column of the list contains the
number of passes for a disk; the second contains the type of operation on a disk
(there are just two: to write a symbol to disk, «writing», and to verify written,
«verification»); the third column contains the pattern of data to be written to
disk.
The pattern to be written is always a hexadecimal value, for example, a value of
this kind: 0x00, 0xAA, or 0xCD, etc. These values are 1 byte long, but they may
be up to 512 bytes long. Except for such values, you may enter a random
hexadecimal value of any length (up to 512 bytes). Your method may also
include one more value for writing that is designated as the «complementary
value» – the value that is complementary to the one written to disk during the
previous pass.
If the binary value is represented by 10001010 (0x8A) sequence, then the
complementary binary value will be represented by 01110101 (0x75) sequence.
Thus you may include the following values in a method:
Any hexadecimal value 1-512 bytes long
Random hexadecimal values 1-512 bytes long
Hexadecimal values, complementary to those written to hard disk during the
previous pass
The Method definition window offers you the template for the method only. You
should define exactly what the software should write to disk to destroy the
confidential data according to your method.
To do this, click your mouse on the line representing pass #1.
The selection of the first pass for pattern definition
Click the Next button to continue.
You will see the window that allows you to define the pattern to be written to
The wiping pass adjustment window for definition of patterns to be written
In this figure, the switch is set to the Write a value position by default, and the
hexadecimal value 0x00 is entered into the field.
This is what the window control elements mean: You may enter any hexadecimal
value into the field under the Write a value switch to write it to a hard disk
during any pass (during the first pass in this case).
By setting the switch to Write a random value position, you first will select write
a random value to disk, and specify the length of random value in bytes in the
spinner field below.
The U.S. standard provides the writing of random values to each byte of each
disk sector during the first pass, so set the switch to Write a random value
position and enter 1 into field.
The input of a random 1-byte value as the pattern for writing
You will be taken to the method definition window again and will see that the
former record (1 – write – 00) was replaced by 1 – write – random value, 1 byte.
The first pass of the custom method is defined
To define the next pass, select the second line of the list and click the Next
button.
You will see the already-familiar window, but this time there will be more switch
positions available: two additional positions will be available for selection:
Write complementary to previous pass pattern
Verify.
The input of value complementary to the one written during the previous pass
As during the second pass of the U.S. standard, each disk sector is filled with
hexadecimal values that are complementary to those written during the previous
pass. Therefore you should set the switch to the Write complementary to previous pass pattern position and click the Next button.
You will be taken to the method definition window again. In this window, the
second record looked like this before: 2 – write – 00, and it was replaced by: 2 –
write – previous step complementary value.
The second pass of the custom method is defined
Following the U.S. data destruction standard specification, define third and
fourth data overwriting passes.
In the same way, you can create any data destruction method to match your
security requirements.
9.4.3 Saving a custom method to file
In the next Saving custom method window, you will be able to save the method
you have created. This will be useful if you are going to use it again.
In order to save your method, you need to give it a filename and define the path
in the Select file field or click the Browse button to locate an existing file on the
disk. You should also enter a brief description of your method.
The method filename and description window
Each custom method is stored in a separate file with its own name. If you try to write a
new method to an already existing file, the existing file’s contents will be erased.
As all passes of your method are defined and the method is saved to file, clicking
the Next button will let you see the window with the generated wiping script
based on your custom method.
The script of data destruction, based on the custom method
By clicking the Proceed button, you will execute the generated script.
If you created and saved your method for data destruction while working with
Acronis Privacy Expert Suite software, you can use it in the following way:
In the Select Method window, choose Load from file… from the drop-down list
and select the file with custom data destruction method parameters. By default,
such files have *.alg extension.
Method selection: loading from file
9.5 Creating a bootable diskette or CD with Acronis Drive
Cleanser
If you didn’t create a bootable diskette or CD with Acronis Drive Cleanser during
installation of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite, you can do it later using the Bootable Media Builder.
This diskette or CD will allow you to easily and permanently destroy data on your
PC even if it doesn’t have Acronis Privacy Expert Suite installed.
To create a bootable diskette, select Bootable Media Builder in the My privacy tools group of the main program window and follow the wizard
instructions.
Information removed from a hard disk drive by non-secure means (for example,
by simple Windows delete) can easily be recovered. Utilizing specialized
equipment, it is possible to recover even repeatedly overwritten information.
Therefore, guaranteed data wiping is more important now than ever before.
The guaranteed wiping of information from magnetic media (e.g. a hard disk
drive) means it is impossible to recover data by even a qualified specialist with
the help of all known tools and recovery methods.
This problem can be explained in the following way: Data is stored on a hard
disk as a binary sequence of 1 and 0 (ones and zeros), represented by
differently magnetized parts of a disk.
Generally speaking, a 1 written to a hard disk is read as 1 by its controller, and 0
is read as 0. However, if you write 1 over 0, the result is conditionally 0.95 and
vice versa – if 1 is written over 1 the result is 1.05. These differences are
irrelevant for the controller. However, using special equipment, one can easily
read the «underlying» sequence of 1 and 0.
It only requires specialized software and inexpensive hardware to read data
«deleted» this way by analyzing magnetization of hard disk sectors, residual
magnetization of track sides and/or by using current magnetic microscopes.
Writing to magnetic media leads to subtle effects summarized as follows: every
track of a disk stores an image of every record ever written to it, but the effect of
such records (magnetic layer) becomes more subtle as time passes.
A.1 Information wiping methods’ functioning principles
Physically, the complete wiping of information from a hard disk involves the
switching of every elementary magnetic area of the recording material as many
times as possible by writing specially selected sequences of logical 1 and 0 (also
known as samples).
Using logical data encoding methods in current hard disks, you can select
samples of symbol (or elementary data bit) sequences to be written to sectors in
order to repeatedly and effectively wipe confidential information.
Methods offered by national standards provide (single or triple) recording of
random symbols to disk sectors that are straightforward and arbitrary decisions, in general, but still acceptable in simple situations. The most effective
information-wiping method is based on deep analysis of subtle features of
recording data to all types of hard disks. This knowledge speaks to the necessity
of complex multipass methods to guarantee information wiping.
The detailed theory of guaranteed information wiping is described in an article
by Peter Gutmann. Please see:
The table below briefly describes information wiping methods used by Acronis.
Each description features the number of hard disk sector passes along with the
number(s) written to each sector byte.
The description of built-in information wiping methods
NN Algorithm (writing
Passes Record
method)
1. United States
Department of
Defense 5220.22M
4 1
st
pass – randomly selected symbols to
each byte of each sector, 2 –
complementary to written during the 1
pass; 3 – random symbols again; 4 –
writing verification.
2. United States:
NAVSO P-5239-26
(RLL)
3. United States:
NAVSO P-5239-26
(MFM)
4 1
4 1
st
pass – 0x01 to all sectors, 2 –
0x27FFFFFF, 3 – random symbol
sequences, 4 – verification.
st
pass – 0x01 to all sectors, 2 –
0x7FFFFFFF, 3 – random symbol
sequences, 4 – verification.
This glossary contains supplemental information on the most popular spyware from
which Acronis Privacy Expert Suite protects you.
Adware
This is a kind of Web marketing where banners are integrated into freeware and
shareware programs. To be able to use a program, a user has to watch ads
downloaded from the Web. This increases traffic volume and slows down your
Internet connection.
Browser Helper Objects
Some Browser Helper Objects are useful at expanding your browser’s
capabilities, but there are others that might not need your permission to install
on your computer and that can be used for malicious purposes like gathering
information on your surfing habits. This can cause problems ranging from
incompatibility issues to corrupting important system functions, making them not
only a threat to your security, but also to your system’s stability.
Browser hijackers
Browser hijackers have the ability to change your Internet browser settings,
redirect your Web searches through their own search engines, redirect mistyped
or incomplete URLs, and change your default home page. They may redirect
your searches to "pay-per-search" Web sites which are very often pornographic
Web sites.
Commercial keylogger
Keyloggers register which keys are pressed on user PC and transmit this
information via e-mail. Such applications can also store the time of running or
quitting any applications. They might operate without users’ knowledge.
Dialers
Dialers have the ability to disconnect your computer from your local Internet
provider and reconnect you to the Internet using an alternate connection, such
as an expensive pornographic, toll or international phone number. They do not
spy on you, but they may rack up significant long-distance phone charges. They
have the ability to run in the background, hiding their presence.
These are security bugs and vulnerabilities in applications primarily meant for
Web operations. Through such holes, intruders can corrupt a PC or gain remote
control over it.
Remote Administration
A kind of software, including commercial, designed for remote PC control. In
some cases, users might not be aware of such applications running.
Sniffers
Programs that capture network traffic (sent and received data packets). Sniffers
could be a serious threat, able to capture and decrypt user names, passwords
and private information and prevent normal operation of computers and network
in general. As most protocols (FTP, POP, HTTP, telnet) have secret information
transmitted unencrypted, an intruder can easily gain access to a user’s
information by setting up sniffer filters and waiting for the victim to connect to a
server.
Spyware threats glossar
Spyware
Programs that secretly gather and transmit personal user information. Spyware
can be a part of various applications, including commercial products.
Toolbars
Toolbars can be downloaded to your Web browser to make browsing easier.
Examples include the Google, Alexa and Yahoo toolbars. Even though these are
very handy to use, they have the ability to track everything you do on the
Internet and to pass that information back to the owners of the toolbars. Be sure
to read the terms and conditions page before you download any toolbar.
Trojan Horses (Trojans)
Trojans are specially created programs that are deployed to PCs imitating useful
applications and utilities. They can result in failures, lock-ups or even complete
data destruction. Trojans are spread via mailing lists, Web forums, etc.