Cyberscrub Privacy Guard - Does NOT work

[johntaylorny]

Specifically speaking about Cyberscrub's "privacy guard" feature which claims to remove internet activity. It does NOT erase all internet activity.

Surfing the web for a day I then ran the privacy guard, using the 3 pass technique and rebooted the computer.

I then used a program called Undelete Plus by Phoenix Technologies to scan the hard drive.

Every web page, image, text file, google search and cookie were recovered.

Now remember I'm only speaking of the "privacy guard" aspect of the program. When I ran the "erase beyond recovery" aspect it wipes the free space of the hard drive. That did eliminate everything and Undelete Plus recovered nothing.

The problem is:

1) most people think that running privacy guard eliminates your online activity. It doesn't. For some reason every html page, text file, pictures, and search term is being saved in my hard drive free space.

2) wiping the free space of your hard drive takes forever especially with the large hd sizes of computers these days. Wiping my drive with 3 passes takes 15 hours.

[CyberScrub Tech]

Hello johntaylorny,

I wanted to assure you that CyberScrub Privacy Guard works perfectly fine. I just saw your post and wanted to reply to it to make sure that the users of this forum understand the process correctly.

First, to make sure that you are deleting your Privacy Guard related Internet traces, History, Cookies etc., you need to know and make sure that you have selected the appropriate Browser (IE, Mozilla, Google Chrome, etc) within the Privacy Suite program. Then you need to make sure that you are using DoD 3 pass method or any other method of your Choice from within the program which is either equal to 3 pass or more. (These are secure methods).

You also have to select Scramble file and folder properties, as if you do not do so then your file and folder name may be easily recovered.

If you still have doubts about the program then simply send and email to us and we will do a remote session and prove to you that our program works. The Program is being used by many fortune 500 companies, Government agencies and US Military.

Our programs are tested against the best forensic recovery software...
To just summarize, if you use the program correctly, it will do its task 100% of the time.

I hope this information will help all the users of this forum. If you need any help please go to the CyberScrub Support site http://support.cyberscrub.com

Best regards,

[HKEY1952]

Originally Posted by CyberScrub Tech

If you still have doubts about the program then simply send and email to us and we will do a remote session and prove to you that our program works.

First, Welcome to Wilders Security Forums CyberScrub Tech!

I have been using CyberScrub for years and will use no other.
The preformance and Security Provided by CyberScrub is Outstanding.

Secondly, CyberScrub should not have to prove their products effectiveness with suggestive offers
as Remote Assistance.....Simply follow the advice in Post #2 and re-run the Recovery Software and
Prove it to ones self.....Personally, I would not allow CyberScrub or any connection to connect to
my computer Remotely and poke around.


HKEY1952

[johntaylorny]

I'm not really arguing that CyberScrub doesn't permanently delete files but rather the wording of the 'privacy guard' feature. The way privacy guard is described on the software it makes the ordinary user think that ALL their internet activity is gone. And that is not true. While the privacy guard does, in fact, delete the browser history and cookies, it does NOT delete web browsing data (html pages, pictures, css files, text files, etc) that for some reason get saved into the free space of the hard drive.

So, when a person think that by running privacy guard no one can see what they did online, that is not true. I was able to look at all my online activity based on what was stored in the free space by using a free datarecovery program.

Again, wiping the hard drive free space did remove it completely using CS.

[Warlockz]

I used to use CyberScrub until I found East-Tec Eraser and decided to ditch Cyberscrub. their basically clones of each other, I don't have a clue which one came first though? East-tech doesn't include the unneeded encryption feature which I never trusted in Cyberscrub, I use a triple stack East-Tec Eraser, R-wipe & Clean and CCleaner. why? because each will wipe things the others miss. or if I'm going to do a free-space wipe I use CCleaner to just quickly delete crap, whats the use of waiting for something to erase each individual file if your going to be doing a free-space wipe? which is one thing I don't understand why these privacy software vendors feel you need to waist time with. but dont get me wrong I still have whatever ccleaner didnt delete checked in my scheduler for my Free-space wipe. it just saves allot of time to use CCleaner first to quickly delete files before a free-space wipe.

Usually I just use Sandboxie and erase the sandbox when I'm done, I added the sandbox's to my Wipe-lists in East-tech. and I have Shadow copy and restore disabled so my OS isnt making unwanted clones on my HD, I use 3rd partie Backup software if I need to create a backup.

I have my HD partitioned so that my OS Partition is 120GB and I keep the majority of my other data on my other partitions as well as sync them to external drives. So this in turn saves me lots of time doing free space wipes on my OS partition, I also never use Overkill algorithms to wipe my drive, I use the 1 pass Pseudo-random algorithm which is more than enough to stop anyone from recovering my data period! Unless you have an old Hard Drive from the 90s or early 2000s I wouldn't worry about wiping it with a 3 or 7 pass algorithm. don't believe me look up any forensics forum and ask them about their success rate recovering any data from a drive where the person of interest used a simple 1 pass pseudo-random algorithm! Plus constantly using Overkill algorithms will decrease the life of your drive significantly! I dont care what east-tech or cyberscrub says in their wipe settings, stops hardware/software recovery tools, 1 pass psudorandom stops both software/hardware recovery period, their info is outdated and it kinda makes them look like they don't know what they are doing.

If your really worried about your sensitive data you need to think about using VirtualBox or VMware Player and then store the virtual OS inside an encrypted container like with TrueCrypt. or encrypting your entire drive with Truecrypt or DiskCryptor!

[LockBox]

Warlockz, You asked a question I'd like to hear an answer to. Maybe the CyberScrub people can tell us: What is the relationship between East-Tech Eraser and CyberScrub? Back in 2005 or so, I remember trying them both and they were identical, exact same features, etc. However, one or the other, (I don't remember which) was $20 higher than the other one.

I've wondered about this every time I see their products mentioned. Early in their life - they worked on an affiliate program that resulted in tons of spam sites and always soured me. I don't know if they still do that or not (the affiliate thing).

[Warlockz]

CyberScrub has always been more expensive than East-Tec Eraser, Cyberscrub now includes Encryption, but I definatly dont trust it, I would rather use Truecrypt or AxCrypt, which have always been free and proven very good encryption tools.

East-Tec seems to update faster then Cyberscrub, even the cyberscrub website is still outdated like it always is!

[Saabman96]

I'd just like to say to CyberScrub Tech that the programme works fine, but in my experience the Tech support often doesn't work.
I submitted a ticket with a straightforward query in May 2011. This was never acknowledged let alone answered despite about four reminders during subsequent months. I have been totally ignored to this day. I was not at all impressed and I don't think that there is any excuse for this kind of treatment. It certainly isn't the way to win friends and influence people.

[SafetyFirst]

Originally Posted by Warlockz

I used to use CyberScrub until I found East-Tec Eraser and decided to ditch Cyberscrub.

I ditched CyberScrub too because it stopped working and they didn't have any customer service whatsoever.

Originally Posted by Warlockz

I use a triple stack East-Tec Eraser, R-wipe & Clean and CCleaner. why? because each will wipe things the others miss.

Similar here. I use a triple stack of Evidence Eliminator, R-Wipe & Clean and CCleaner. Plus, I use Eraser for secure file deletion and free space wiping. BTW, R-W&C managed to "wipe and clean" a dozen of my desktop icons when I used it for the first time.

I noticed that after running EE or R-W&C, if I run CCleaner, it finds about 75 MB of data to wipe. I suppose EE and R-W&C leave their garbage around. Have you noticed such a thing?

Originally Posted by Warlockz

Usually I just use Sandboxie and erase the sandbox when I'm done, I added the sandbox's to my Wipe-lists in East-tech.

I do that too. I configured Eraser to do a 3-pass wipe on sandbox closing.

Originally Posted by Warlockz

and I have Shadow copy and restore disabled

How can I disable Shadow copy?

Originally Posted by Warlockz

I use 3rd partie Backup software if I need to create a backup.

Same here.

Originally Posted by Warlockz

If your really worried about your sensitive data you need to think about using VirtualBox or VMware Player and then store the virtual OS inside an encrypted container like with TrueCrypt. or encrypting your entire drive with Truecrypt or DiskCryptor!

Thanks for the advice. It's just that tiny 100MB system reserved partition that bugs with FDE.

[DasFox]

BleachBit is a good app, everyone should use this, free too...

http://bleachbit.sourceforge.net/

[kiyotey]

Hey everyone,

I personally also use East-Tec Eraser 2012. I can tell you that East-Technologies is the parent company of the two as far as I know. One example is that if you have cyberscrub installed and if you are running windows 7, if you look in the User Folder, Application Data, Cyberscrub, Methods, and choose any of the Wiping Algorithms, you will notice at the top of any of the Methods that it is titled with "Copyright (C) 1997-2009 EAST Technologies". The same is marked when looking into East-Tec Eraser's Methods btw. "Copyright (C) 1997-2009 EAST Technologies".

I did speak with Support Personel at East-Technologies about three years ago who told me that East-Tec is the parent company with Cyberscrub being it's sister company. As previously mentioned the two programs are very similar. Also as Warlockz mentioned Cyberscrub Privacy Suite does have encryption but I also wouldn't use it with other better free and shareware encryption programs that are available. East-Tec Eraser btw, is priced at $39.95 for first time buyers with Cyberscrub being priced at $59.95, however they do have a sale at the moment which prices it at $47.96 if you don't purchase the download guarentee or backup CD. I just purchased an extended 2 year License for my East-Tec Eraser 2012 which is priced at $24.95. I actually bought 2 of those and now have my License extended to 2016. Kewl!

Just a few years ago maybe 3 years or so, I found out that Cyberscrub only performed writing up to 3 byte blocks when overwriting data onto the Hard drive and at the time East-Tec Eraser performed writing up to 4 Byte Blocks when overwriting data and if I remember correctly, I think they told me that East-Tec Eraser in fact can write up to 5 Byte Blocks per pass when overwriting data. It was after finding this out that I got rid of Cyberscrub permanently and began using only East-Tec Eraser. This might not be a big deal to some, but if you are writing your own wiping algorithms you have a lot more room in writing your algorithms with at least up to 4 byte blocks to write into your algorithms which is just more thorough in completeing certain algorithms which can complete cycling of any 8 character byte blocks per every two passes
such as 00010101, 00101010, 01010100, 10101000
01010001, 10100010, 01000101, 10001010, in two passes for example and then arriving back at 00010101, if you were to start again. Most people then just start another two passes in which you could use something like 10101000 to start another pass with and then just continue skipping the first character again to start and then continue your next two passes.

Again Random passes are much more secure but you could play around with maybe starting with something similar to the above and then ending with 2 or 3 random passes if that suits you. Some people will write any given pass of characters followed by it's complement if that suits you and then follow that up with random passes. This is similar to Bruce Schneier's 7 Pass algorithm but it's not really necessary using that many passes. 2 or 3 Random passes are usally fine unless you require more security.

By having the option of using at least 4 byte blocks it will allow for complete character cycling during each two passes if that it your thing. It was certainly what made me dump Cyberscrub and I am quite happy I did.

Personally, I used to write some wiping algorithms that way, but now only use random passes which is much more secure in each pass as it makes it much more difficult for disk reading programs to try and guess at what characters might be underneath of say a one pass wipe in which someone used say all 00's as the overwriting characters. With Random passes it is much more difficult to try and read what the previous overwritten data might be. This is just one way in which the government for instance might try to recover underwritten data if let's say someone only overwrote the data with all 1's or 0's as their pass which can be done btw. It is possible as some underwritten data bleeds over when it being written to the hard drive which is what allows that concept to be possible. That is why random passes are more secure and why maybe using at least 2 overwritten random passes will be quite secure in thoroughly covering any previously underwritten data which cannot then be determined.

I agree with the other cyberscrub users who have had difficluties using cyberscrub as well. Although East-Tec Eraser and Cyberscrub are very similar products East-Tec Eraser is much more secure and I believe more thorough in my opinion. I have never had any problems using East-Tec Eraser at all and their Technical Support is the best by far if compairing the two companies. I had tried years ago just getting someone at Cyberscrub to answer a couple of my questions and couldn't get any response whatsoever which is another reason why I simply quit using their product.

East-Tec Eraser 2012 is very thorough at overwritng all of window's junk files which as we all know are many plus you can wipe registry data if you wish which is a very nice feature. There is really no reason to use other wiping software programs unless perhaps you want to quickly scrub a file or two in which you could use BCWipe or maybe Active@ZDelete from their context menu which are both great products also, but I mainly just use East-Tec Eraser 2012 every day or every couple of days which does a great and very thorough job of wiping all of the folders and files that I want wiped including a few hidden registry folders in Windows 7 which is also nice.

Hope this helps anyone looking for a really secure wiping program that is very thorough and maybe help explain some of differences between the two programs.