OT: Does this software exist...

I never understood why Eudora split single emails up into different directories and - at least long ago - didn't keep track of name collisions such as 1.jpg contained in two independent emails.

At least Thunderbird/Seamonkey keeps everything together in a standard format (mbox) that can be moved by filesystem commands and, importantly, is supported by many different email clients.

??? "Recycle Bin"???? Where it STILL EXISTS???? Have software WRITE OVER the file, first with zeros, then with ones and then with a ranDUMB bit pattern. FINALLY, have it *deleted*, NOT copied to some stupid and useless folder that happens to be called "Recycle Bin".

How many genuine emails end up as false positives though?

Some muppet sent me a perfect facsimile of a spam email recently and then wondered why I hadn't seen it. White listing is no better since then you get the hostile binary spam from people who should know better clicking on dodgy links in a corporate environment with defective AV.

A batch file run at boot time (or by cron) that contains

del \wherever\*.bad

but beware of the potential for collateral damage if there are files with those extensions present in the directory when that runs. (ok if they are locked by another process but bad if they are not)

The DOS del command does not recognize the Recycle bin. But there is a DOS app that can send the file to the Recycle bin, recycler.exe.

You could do a BAT file and run it from the Task scheduler.

But Jim wants a Windows application to do that.

Cheers

shred -u -f ~/mail/Embedded/*

;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Shred is cool, but beware. The following is from the shred "man page":

CAUTION: Note that shred relies on a very important assumption: that the file system overwrites data in place. This is the traditional way to do things, but many modern file system designs do not satisfy this assumption. The following are examples of file systems on which shred is not effective, or is not guaranteed to be effective in all file system modes:

• log-structured or journaled file systems, such as those supplied with AIX and Solaris (and JFS, ReiserFS, XFS, Ext3, etc.)

• file systems that write redundant data and carry on even if some writes fail, such as RAID-based file systems

• file systems that make snapshots, such as Network Appliance's NFS server

• file systems that cache in temporary locations, such as NFS version 3 clients

• compressed file systems

In the case of ext3 file systems, the above disclaimer applies (and shred is thus of limited effectiveness) only in data=journal mode, which journals file data in addition to just metadata. In both the data=ordered (default) and data=writeback modes, shred works as usual. Ext3 journaling modes can be changed by adding the data=something option to the mount options for a particular file system in the /etc/fstab file, as documented in the mount man page (man mount).

In addition, file system backups and remote mirrors may contain copies of the file that cannot be removed, and that will allow a shredded file to be recovered later.

Hiding from the NSA is "tough". :-)

Well, we were talking about deleting malware that hadn't been activated, which is easier.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Yep. All I want is it inactive and flushed when Recycle Bin is emptied. ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson | mens | | Analog Innovations | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | STV, Queen Creek, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

I'm looking for work... see my website.

How can you hide your emails from the NSA when they already have copies on *their* hard drives?

Sufficiently strong encryption will prevent anyone - even spooks from listening in on your emails if you are truly paranoid. Hence the recent debacle over access to encrypted data on Apple and Blackberry kit.

Yeah, but the owners were dead in the Apple case. No one had the ability to read the mail. If you are still alive they can capture it when you read it unless you are in a screen room. Or there likely exists malware that reads everything you read and ships it off to whoever is willing to pay for it and not care about breaking laws.

I have no first hand knowledge of any of this. I'm just speculating. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Yes, but it won't stop them from key-logging the email before it has been encrypted, or from taking a copy while you are viewing it.

Manufacturers of laptops, network cards and hard drives are shipping products with back doors. You'd have to make your own computer from bare chips to be secure, and even then...

But isn't that going to shotgun the entire contents of the embedded folder? That folder will (generally) contain "good stuff" as well as the malevolent .js.