BCWipe 4.01.21

BCWipe 4.01.21

Description by the Software Developer:
"BCWipe software enables you to confidently erase files that can never be recovered by an intruder. BCWipe embeds itself within Windows and can be activated from the Explorer FILE Menu OR from the context sensitive (right click) menu OR from a command-line prompt. BCWipe is a powerful set of utilities which complies with options to invoke either the US DoD 5200.28-STD standard or the Peter Gutmann wiping scheme. You can also create and use your own customized wiping scheme to wipe sensitive information from storage devices installed on your computer.

General BCWipe features:

BCWipe software provides the following main commands and options:
- Delete with wiping. Using this command available in the context menus of the 'My computer' window, you can delete and wipe a file or a folder, or a group of files and folders.

- Wipe free disk space. Using this command available in the context menus of the 'My computer' window, you can completely remove all traces of previously deleted files.

- Wipe Swap File. The Swap File is a Windows system file that is used for virtual memory support. If you are working on a file or document (even one that has been encrypted by a powerful engine), Windows can copy all or part of it in an open unencrypted form to the Swap file on your hard disk. Encryption keys, passwords, and other sensitive information can also be 'swapped' to your hard drive. Even if you use all the security features in the latest versions of Windows, simply investigating the Swap file in DOS mode with readily available tools may allow for significant data retrieval. BCWipe offers the option to wipe unused portions of the Swap File.

- Wipe Empty Directory Entries. The file system records the names and attributes of files to a special area (so called 'directory entries' for FAT and MFT for NTFS). When a file is deleted the corresponding directory entry is modified by the file system, which makes it invisible to windows and you. But most of the information still exists and the name and attributes can be restored using any recovery utility. BCWipe shreds directory entries and MFT so that the information can never be recovered.

- Wipe File Slacks. A file slack is the disk space from the end of a file up to end of the last cluster used by that file. You can turn file slacks wiping on or off before running BCWipe commands."

Evaluation period: 30 days.

Softoogle's Review of BCWipe 3.07.2
September 30, 2006

Although BCWipe has not been updated by its developer for the last year (the last version 3.07.2 was out September 9, 2005), we decided to write this review and let you know the results of our testing the software.

BCWipe tightly integrates with Windows shell by adding a "Delete with wiping" entry to the Windows Explorer right-click context menu so you can delete any file or folder by right-clicking on it and selecting the "Delete with wiping" command from the pop-up menu. Also, if you open "My Computer" and right-click on your local hard drive, you'll see a new "Wipe free space with BCWipe" entry.

BCWipe lets you erase your data with either of the three wiping methods: U.S. DoD 5200.28-STD (7 passes), Peter Gutmann (35 passes), or one random pass.

Through the BCWipe Task Manager you can schedule new tasks such as "Delete with wiping," "Wipe Free space," "Wipe Special folders contents," and "Clear recently used files lists."

The first option, "Delete with wiping," lets you add files and folders to your wiping list (drag'n'drop is supported) and either schedule the wiping time or wipe the selected items right away.

The second option, "Wipe Free space," lets you wipe free space on the entire hard drive to make sure that no leftovers are left from anything you might have previously deleted using unsecure methods (like simply emptying the Recycle Bin). On the plus side, BCWipe enables you to wipe the Windows swap file as well as records in the MFT (Master file table). On the minus side, BCWipe does leave some traces of its activity: after you have wiped the free space on your hard drive with BCWipe, undelete software such as EasyRecovery finds hundreds of tiny empty files and folders created by BCWipe in the process of the free space wiping. The files and folders are empty, they do not contain anything, but their presence signifies that the hard drive was wiped with wiping software.

The third option, "Wipe Special folders contents," is used to wipe the contents of folders such as Temporary Internet Files, History, Cookies, and a few others. And this option seems to have a serious downside: it doesn't seem to let you add any other folder to the list. For instance, it's unclear how to add a folder containing the cache of any browser other than Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. We tried to drag'n'drop folders into the program's window but it didn't work.

The fourth option of the BCWipe Task Manager lets you wipe MRU's (the lists of recently used files). The obvious downside here is that the list of MRU's is limited to just a few applications such as WordPad, MS Paint etc. The "Search Registry for other MRU lists" button doesn't seem to aid in adding MRU's from other applications installed in the system.

BCWipe also includes a handy CryptoSwap utility used to encrypt the Windows swap file with strong algorithms.