User manual ACRONIS PRIVACY EXPERT SUITE 8.0

[. . . ] User's Guide Acronis Privacy Expert Suite 8. 0 Compute with confidence www. acronis. com Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. [. . . ] 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 Shield (see section 3. 2 «Spyware protection») Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 21 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield 3. 1 Spyware removal 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. You will see what spyware applications are found and which files and registry keys are related to them: 22 Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield Spyware scanning results 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. If you, want to leave some spyware applications or their components, uncheck them in the resulting list. 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. Spyware removal operations final script To execute the script, click Proceed. Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 23 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield After spyware clean-up is finished, you will see a summary that will state the amount of spyware applications removed. 3. 1. 2 Setting up the Spyware Removal Wizard To set up the Spyware Removal Wizard, select Configure Spyware Removal Options in the Spyware Removal window. Selecting scanning mode There are two modes of searching for spyware: Smart scanning mode ­ used by default. In this case, the suite searches for spyware only in the most likely locations, including system, user profile and temporary files folders, as well as in the system registry. This variant could take much more time depending on the capacity of your hard disks. Spyware scanning modes Setting up Smart scanning mode Having selected Smart scanning mode, you can manually edit the spyware to be removed by the Spyware Removal Wizard: 24 Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield Spyware category selection Setting up Deep scanning mode If you selected Deep scanning mode, you can manually select disks and folders in which to search for spyware: Disk and folders selection Saving settings All Spyware Removal Wizard settings will be active until you change them. Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 25 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield 3. 2 Spyware protection 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 described in its database. 26 Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield All suspicious activities ­ Spyware Shield will warn you about all suspicious programs or processes that are trying to change the Windows registry or are launched at startup. This is the recommended setting for experienced users. General options window Advanced options The Advanced options section enables more detailed setup of Spyware Shield and offers the following settings: Prevent browser hijacking ­ Spyware Shield will prevent applications from making changes to your Web browser settings, including home page, search page, etc Guard against start-up changes ­ will prevent suspicious programs and processes from launching at Windows startup Guard ActiveX configuration ­ will prevent changing settings of ActiveX components Analyze running processes ­ will constantly monitor running processes and warn you about any suspicious actions of unknown programs. Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 27 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield Advanced options window Saving Spyware Shield settings 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: http://www. acronis. com/enterprise/registration/ Your login is your valid email address. 28 Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield 3. 3. 2 Running Spyware Definitions Updates Wizard You can run Spyware Definitions Updates Wizard the following ways: By clicking Web updates on sidebar of Acronis Privacy Expert Suite main window By selecting Settings Web updates in the menu By clicking Web updates on the toolbar. Spyware definitions update wizard 3. 3. 3 Selecting update mode Having run Spyware Definitions Updates Wizard, you can select the update mode: either manual, or scheduled automatic: To update spyware definitions right now, select Update spyware definitions now To automatically update spyware definitions on a suitable schedule, select Update automatically. Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 29 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield Selecting update mode window 3. 3. 4 Entering the account information 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): Entering the account information window 30 Copyright © Acronis, Inc. , 2000-2005 Spyware removal and Spyware Shield 3. 3. 5 Setting the schedule If you selected automatic updates, you will be asked to set the suitable schedule. [. . . ] Logical zeros (0x00 numbers) to each byte of each sector for 6th to 4th security level systems. Randomly selected symbols (numbers) to each byte of each sector for 3rd to 1st security level systems. It's based on his theory of hard disk information wiping (see http://www. cs. auckland. ac. nz/~pgut001 /pubs/secure_del. html). Bruce Schneier offers a seven-pass overwriting method in his Applied Cryptography book. [. . . ]