Zapper 1.5

File Wipe Utility

Copyright 1995 Christopher Riley



 Usage:  Zap [file desc (e.g. - *.*)] -S


While DOS may soon be gone from our lives, there will no doubt be at least a
couple of folks out there who will still use it <smile> ...

One area in which DOS is severely lacking is security.  A good example of 
this lack of security can be witnessed when you delete a file.  There are few
who are unaware that it is possible to UNDELETE a file deleted in DOS; in fact
DOS even now comes with a utility that will do this for you.

But what if you really need that file gone, what if you have sensitive data
that you do not wish anyone else to reconstruct ?!  Well, under normal 
circumstances, there is little you can do.  Simply copying a new file over
your old one and then deleting the file will insure that if someone does
undelete your file, they will only undelete that copied file.

It may surprise you to know, however, that some of the contents of that file
may still be able to be recovered.  An industrious hacker, or even a normal
Joe with the right utility, might be able to recover parts of a deleted file
thought to long gone.  Such utilities ignore what DOS tells them about a file
and search a disk on thier own.  If you have ever seen one of these utilities
in action, you would be amazed at the junk data that lingers on you disk well
after you thought it was deleted.

That is where Zapper comes in.  I developed the Zapper utility because I hate 
loose ends.  I have sold a number of old computers that I have owned, and it
always worried me a little that some one might hack into my old personal 
files on the hard drive.  In order to prevent this, I made sure to format the
hard drive before selling it.  This was a big pain, since I had to go back 
and install a lot of software BACK onto the machine.  

Then I wrote Zapper.

What Zapper does is it first renames your file to a temporary filename - an
important first step in preventing someone from knowing what a file contains.
Next Zapper overwrites the entire file with Zero's, making sure that ALL the
contents of the file are wiped clean.  In fact, Zapper will even overwrite the
file by a random number of bytes, which help breaks consistency, and further
disguises what the file used to be.  Then Zapper makes the file Zero bytes in
length and deletes it.

A new feature in this publicly released version of Zapper is the ability to 
recurse subdirectories of files, which allows you to wipe clean whole DOS
directories at a shot.  The recurse subdirectories switch is -S.  Be careful,
though, once Zapper zaps a file, there is NO getting it back.



Some of the uses for Zapper:

     To remove all traces of your private financial files!

     To obliterate price quote files!

     To completely erase personal letters!

     To eradicate confidential company information!
     
     To wipe clean any traces of a program that you no longer legally own!

     To zap away any sensitive files you would rather no one else see!



Useage Agreement:

You may use and distribute Zapper freely except for the following condition:

 Businesses and Government Agencies (excluding Schools) are required to pay a 
 licensing fee of $5 per computer on which Zapper is used.  Quite simply put,
 you may not use Zapper in a place of business or governemnt institution 
 without a license.  See the bottom of this text for ordering info.

If you use Zapper in your home or school, it is free with no other strings 
attached. Give it to friends, upload it everywhere, just don't use it in a 
place of business without a license.

Of course, if you want to register Zapper anyway, I would certainly appreciate
it <smile>.



Ordering a License:

Simply drop me a note with the following info:

Company Name
Company Address, State, Zipcode
Company Phone Number
Your Name
Number of Licenses you are purchasing 

Include payment for the number of licenses x $5 to:

Christopher Riley

Zapper Registration
11538 Annette Av
Tampa, Fl 33637

