BackTrack 3 BETA

BackTrack 3, the best in security testing. It's a free ISO you can either burn to a CD-R and use in live mode, or you can run it from a USB drive. I chose to run it two ways. The first is by making a Virtual Machine on VMware Player (Download here), the second is with a LiveCD. Without shelling out cash, you don't have many easy options for a VMware virtual machine. So I made a custom one, but that is a story for another post.
BT was modified for use in Penetration Testing, which is when a company tests their system/software security. The tools included in BackTrack 3 are quite numerous. They range from computer password crackers, to FTP password crackers, to spoofers, to just about every other naughty tool. Some of the best tools (In my opinion) are the ones who automate the process of cracking targets, or just anything that makes a process simple.

The Full List

+Information Gathering: ASS= Automated System Scanner

+Network Mapping: Ping (Duh...)

+Vulnerability Identification: SQL Injection: If it's THAT easy to break into a site...then Damn.

+Penetration: Milw0rm Archive

+Privilege Escalation: DHCPX Flooder, John The Ripper, Rainbow Crack, Hydra, xHydra, Webcrack

+Maintaining Access: HTTPtunneling, Backdoors (I hate those...)

+Radio Network Analysis: Aircrack, bluebugger

+VOIP and Telephony Analysis: SIPcrack

+Digital Forensics: Sleuthkit, Rootkithunter

So definitely check it out. Just remember ONLY use it for legal purposes. Not my fault if you get your ass sued for being stupid.

App: CCleaner

An absolutely fantastic free program. Offers secure deletion options for deleting your secure data, or what you don't want your room mate to see. The options are Normal (1 pass), Secure Simple Overwrite (1 pass), DOD 5220.22-M (3 passes), NSA (7 passes), and Gutmann (35 passes). A normal deletion replaces the ones with zeros, and just about any data recovery tool will be able to recover your deleted porn. How ever, if you go over the data and delete it 35 times, then its pretty much gone for ever. NSA Secure Deletion is the Military Standard for file deletion, and thats only 7 passes, 5 times that is much more secure.

Deletes:

+Internet Explorer
-Temp Files
-Cookies
-History
-Recently Typed URLs
-Index.dat Files
-Last Download Location
-Auto-complete Form History

+Windows Explorer
-Recent Documents
-Run (Commands typed)
-Search Autocomplete
-Other Explorer MRUs

+System
-Empty Recycle Bin
-Temp Files
-Clipboard
-Memory Dumps
-CHKDSK File Fragments
-Windows Log Files
-Start Menu Shortcuts

+Advanced
-Old Prefetch Data
-Menu Order Cache
-Tray Notification Cache
-Window Size/Location Cache
-User Assist History
-IIS Log Files
-Hotfix Uninstallers
-Custom Files and Folders

+Firefox/Mozilla
-Cookies
-Download History
-Internet Cache
-Internet History
-Saves Form Information

+Applications
-Adobe Reader 8.0
-MS Office Manager
-Office 2003
-Office 2007
-Office XP

+Internet
-Kazaa (Search history)
-Sun Java
-Yahoo Toolbar

+Multimedia
-Adobe Flash Player
-Quicktime Player
-Quicktime Player Cache
-Windows Media Player

+Utilities
-Grisoft AVG 7.0
-SpyBot Search and Destroy
-VNCViewer 3
-VNCViewer 4
-WinRAR
-WinZip

+Windows
-MS Management Console
-MS Paint
-MS Wordpad
-RegEdit

There is also a Registry Cleaner tool, an uninstall tool, and a startup manager.