By using an open-source program called SQLite Database Browser, you will be able to find all browser data recorded. Not only that, but you will also be able to see the database structure and browse, while even having the option to manipulate the data within each of the tables. The following information applies to various operating systems, but for the sake of basic demonstration, Windows 7 will be used as an example. The link follows to download SQLite Database Browser: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/

Start by making sure that Firefox is closed; otherwise file locks will present a problem. Open SQLite Database Browser and click the “open” icon and navigate to the appropriate Firefox profile. In Windows 7, it is found in this location:

%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\.default

The following database example shows a database called “formhistory.sqlite”. It stores entered values in the form of input fields like e-mail addresses and even phone numbers. Firefox can be set up to store this information. If it is, it can be found here.

Notice that you can open this table and browse the “moz_formhistory” table. This delightful utility allows you to access many different entries so you may learn exactly how this works. The name of the HTML field where you entered your data is stored in the column titled “fieldname” and the value is listed under the “value” column. There will be many different fieldname values that are the same, but have different “values” defined. This is because field names like “Email” and “Subject” are common field names. You will also notice that values entered on one site will show up on another site.

All of this information can be sensitive. You can search for your credit card number, by pattern, and you will find the plain text entry within this database.

It is likely that you will find many entries that you wish to delete. Locate the “id” value of the entry in the Browse Data tab and click the convenient button “Delete Record”. When you save the changes, the data will be gone. This is perfect for manually clearing sensitive data and is a quick process once you get a feel for it. In this way, you can clear specific privacy data without wiping out your entire browsing data.

For PC security, it is important that privacy data is cleared frequently. This is the type of information that is bait and breeding ground for malware of all types. By keeping sensitive data clear, there is nothing to steal! Naturally, you want to be sure that you do a basic clean of the hard drive and empty the Recycle Bin after this, as some of this data can remain in temporary files and common file locations even after deletion.

Each can then be accessed like any other folder in the Windows operating system. Integrating Google Docs would for example display all documents that are stored in that service on the local computer desktop. Gladinet will automatically synchronize the folders whenever data is edited, added or removed from one of the installed data storage services.

New online storage services and applications are added by providing authentication information in a simple form, usually the username and password to access the service online. Some, like WebDav servers require an url, IP or additional information besides the basic authentication data.

Gladinet runs in the Windows system tray on the local computer system from where it can be accessed and configured. It only takes a few clicks to add a new online storage service in the software. The professional and premium editions of the service add new features to the software including:

• Advanced Task Scheduler/Manager (Run Once or Recurring with Pause, Resume and Reschedule Support)
• Incremental Backup to Mounted Cloud Storage (with File Type Filtering*)
• Advanced Download/Upload Acceleration Technology (Compression, Chunking, Parallel Uploads/Downloads, Bandwidth Throttling)
• Encrypted Local Profile and In-Memory-Only Profile for Better Security
• IIS/Apache Support (Avoid Port 80)

Users who regularly work with the previously mentioned cloud storage providers might want to give Gladinet a try.

True Crypt is an Open-Source software that can be used to create encrypted containers on devices. One of the major advantages of True Crypt is that it can be used as a portable application which means that you can copy the True Crypt files on the USB device so that the software does not have to be installed on the computer system where the data is needed.

There is however the requirement that the user who wants to mount the True Crypt volume to get access to the data needs to have administrative rights to run the software. That is however the only requirement.

Download the True Crypt software and run the setup. The setup displays options to install or extract the contents. Choose the extract option and pick the USB device as the target. All the files needed to encrypt and decrypt data will be extracted to the USB device.

Run truecrypt.exe afterwards. We need to create an encrypted container on the USB device that can store the data that we want to protect. It is limited to the free space on the USB device.

Click on Create Volume in the main interface and select the option to create an encrypted file container. Use the standard volume type in the next screen. Now browse to the USB device and pick a random filename that should be used as the container. You can use any name or extension, it does not really matter, for example test.avi, test.txt or bigrar.rar.

Pick an encryption algorithm (AES is fine and fast) and a Hash Algorithm (SJA-512) and define the space on the device that you want to assign. Select a password (20+ chars are recommended, the more the securer). The volume (in this case the space that you have selected) will be formatted. Move the mouse around to create random information and click the format button in the end.

This completes the creation of the encrypted container on the device. You need to mount it whenever you are going to use it. This is done by executing True Crypt from the USB device, picking a drive letter and selecting the file that contains the encrypted container.

The last step would be to click on mount to enter the password that is needed for the data decryption.

The data will be secure whenever the container is not mounted on the computer system. That’s one of the safest ways of transporting data from location A to B. Got any questions? Let me know.