Removing Private Data from Your PC

I recently discovered that one of the laptop computers my kids use to play games had been compromised by a virus. It underscored the need for a) better antivirus protection and b) simply removing informaiton from the computer that is no longer needed.  Why leave traces of important personal information where it can be found and harvested by God-knows-who? 

I found a nifty little piece of software called Privacy Eraser Pro which set up very easily. I'm told it "exceeds the US Department of Defense DOD 5220.22-M and NSA clearing and sanitizing standard," which sounds good to me.  The bottom line is that now when I delete something, its erased, gone, destroyed, forever and ever, Amen..  Privacy Eraser Pro obliterates your file data so that it is gone forever and can not be recovered by a virus, your wife, the FBI, or NSA. These days, that sounds good to me.  Afterall, every day we all leave a wake of personal information behind us that will persist long after we have left this earth. I feel just a little better knowing that when I delete something on my computer using Privacy Eraser Pro, its gone for good.

This baby knows where your information is stored. It will find and permanently clean out your browser history across multiple browsers, shred your trash bin, obliterate form data and those deleted files in your file system which are recoverable, clean out the list of songs you've been listening to, and so on. 

If you're interested, you can download a free trial of Privacy Erase Pro.
If you buy Privacy Erase Pro, please use this link so that I can get paid, and I'll buy you a beer the next time you're in Minnesota.

Donate online to Tracy Potter for U.S. Senate

A good friend of mine, Tracy Potter, is running for the U.S. Senate seat in North Dakota. You can donate to Tracy Potter's senate campaign through Potter's Act Blue website.

Potter is a honest, hardworking North Dakotan. He will serve ND well in the U.S. Senate. Potter is an approachable, caring family man who supports ND family values.  As a part of the Democrating majority, Potter will remain and independent voice and will bring his creativity and common-sense problem solving abilities to bear on the opportunities and problems the United States faces in the 2010's.

How to remove the "Bing.Zugo" toolbar hijack

Today I discovered that the Bing.Zugotoolbar had hijacked by Internet Explorer browser. Naturally, I want it unintalled, since its really bothering me. It forces me to use their search page, and seems to re-route my browser to other pages when I type in a URL. God knows what kinds of stats they are collecting on me, or if they're monitoring my key strokes.

I first went to my Windows control panel > add/remove programs, but there was no unintall program listed for either Bing or Zugo.

Next I went to Internet Explorer > Tools > Manage Add-ons. Scroll way down to the bottom of the list (probably why they chose a name that begins with a Z) and you will see the Zugo toolbar listed. Click on these items and disable them.

Now, right click on the Windows Start button in the lower left corner of your screen, and choose "Open Windows Explorer." Navigate to:

C:\Program Files\SearchToolbar

In this folder you will find the hidden Zugo uninstall programs. I ran these and they did indeed seem to remove Zugo from my computer, at least the file sin the directory. They did leave behind registry entries that continue to affect browser settings. 

You will have to remove the Zugo keys from your registry with RegEdit, Windows Registry Editor. Be very careful here, since messing up your registry can be bad thing.

In Windows, click Start and type: Regedit

After RegEdit loads, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Zugo

Right click on the ZUGO folder and DELETE

If you have Firefox installed, then you have an extra step to perform.

1. Open FireFox and instead of a url, type: about:config 

2. Firefox will give you a scary warning, but go in anyway. We must be brave.

3. Locate the keyword.url line. It should look like this:

4. Use your mouse to right click on keyword.url, then select Reset

That should do it!

 

While this is certainly a browser hijack, I can't tell if it is malware of any sort, or a virus. Dr. Web reports the threat level of Zugo as "ignore" but that doesn't seem wise to me. I've reported this as Malware to Google and to everyone else I can think of, but the issue doesn't seem to get much attention.

Neither Panda Anti-virus software or Microsoft Security Essentials caught this as of this writing. Caution is order.  Clearly, this is a company that make money when their crap is installed on your computer influencing what you see and where you go. That is always a bad thing.

Beware of Zugo.

If this has helped you, please pay it forward. I suggest making a donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org). They are a non-profit organization that has lawyers and smart people fighting to preserve your internet privacy and freedoms. They are WELL worth your support.  Please at least sign up for their free newsletter so you can learn about important internet privacy issues facing all of us.