An Australian-developed browser plug-in promises to protect webmail content from computer hackers and block keyword-related advertising.

It works by encrypting email messages at the user's computer via a browser toolbar. Recipients need to download a free version of the software - called Armacrypt - to decrypt messages. Emails remain encrypted while in transit and in storage on mail servers.

It also prevents Google Adwords from filtering email text and serving related keyword advertisements on the webmail page. Instead, Adwords serves generic ads and encryption links.

More at >  http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/3601225/Encrypt-your-Hotmail-and-Gmail

Link to the software > http://www.mirrasoft.com/armacrypt/

With Google search over SSL, you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google.

Why would you want to encrypt your communications with a search engine? If the data you send to and receive from a search site is encrypted with SSL, it won't be readable to anyone who intercepts it with packet sniffing software. So if you're worried that the keywords you're searching could implicate or embarrass you, or you just prefer to keep that information private, you might want to use the secure version of Google Search.

To use Google's search over SSL, visit  this link  each time you perform a search.

More information is available at  this link.

You know that just deleting files doesn't erase them from the hard drive - they can be recovered by third party programs. You can also buy third party products that will securely and permanently erase the data, but did you know that you don't have to? There is a command line tool in Windows 7 that will do it for you. It's the Cipher command, and here's how it works:

1. Open a command prompt with elevated privileges by right clicking cmd.exe and selecting "Run as Administrator."

2. At the prompt, type   cipher /w drive:\folder  substituting the drive letter and folder path for "drive" and "folder."

For example, to erase the contents of a folder named "Secrets" in the Documents folder of a user named Bob on the C: drive, you would type cipher /w C:\ Users \ Bob \ Documents \ Secrets

This operation overwrites the selected files with 1s, 0s and random characters.