Preserved Topic: Encrypting Files

Hey, I'm wondering about encrypting files locally. Like Word documents and Excel files and the like. More than just the lame password protection built into the software. Something easy, but reliable.

I made a program in VB one time that would encrypt and decrypt text. I guess you could use it for such a thing.

Sometimes people will save a file and then change the extension to something different like *.jpg or something. When you need it just change it back and open it. I am sure there's software out there that will encrypt files for you.

Check out tucows.com

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found this
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Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

[This message has been edited by CPrompt (edited 04-24-2002).]

zip it with a looooong and good password.
then zip the zip again with a password.
and if you have fun zip it again and your file is perfectly protected.

If you're going to encrypt files locally I would go with a 'private drive' type setup. The old beta I have is called 'private disk' its a virtual disk you mount when you are using the system and unmount when you are off it, mine uses blowfish encryption I think its 664 keys. Its very easy, you just drop files in it, you can even run items from inside the virtual drive when its mounted. but when you unmount it or reboot the drive is locked up with whatever encryption you choose on the initial setup. I found a few programs that appear similar like Dekart Private Disk Light 1.10 and Paragon Encrypted Disk 2.0 .

Paranoia is just a heightened sense of awareness.


::: deviant art :::
::::::: or ::::::::
::::: moaiz ::::::

[This message has been edited by moaiz (edited 04-24-2002).]

Blow fish and Twofish a good reliable standards you can read about them here. He also has some good software links on his crypto links page.

If you are feeling really paranoid you can use steganography. This will hide your file in photo or an mp3 file.

heres a list af various software and sharware that might help you.

You can also run a google search on blowfish, cryptography, steganography etc. Searching for crypto stuff can take you to some very interesting parts the internet.

this may be a duh statement but if you use single key encrytion dont leave the key on your machine. Put on a disk or something. Also don't lose it-cause aint nobody gonna crack your file this year. (It took the NSA a year and some to crack the Al Qaeda files that were encrypted with PGP shareware.)

<edit>forgot these</edit>


----
tiki


[This message has been edited by tikigod (edited 04-24-2002).]

Yeah, PGP is great stuff. You can also mount an encrypted disk as a virtual drive. And, as a reminder, an excerpt from the PGP FAQ:

"What happens if you forget your password/key?"

"Answer: Don't."

What I'm looking for is a way to encrypt a file I use quite often, but wouldn't want anyone else to read if they got a hold of it. Something I could access without a lot of extra steps. I'll take a look at some of the stuff you guys have pointed me to. Thanks.

Wes, I'ld recommend you using PGP Disk from http://www.pgpi.com/ (I remember it was free for non-commercial use)

Yeah PGP is the way to go. It will even integrate seamlessly with many of the programs you want to use, like word.

OK, so PGPdisk was wonderful up until the point I tried to format the drive. It refused to format. I couldn't find anything specific on the problem, but I do believe there are issues with using the software on Windows 2000.

The newest version may work, I don't know, but the last free version of PGPdisk is 6.01i.

So, I went with Dekart Private Disk Light 1.11 because it was free. (Too bad the full version ain't free -- it would be pretty nifty to access my encrypted files by inserting a card into a Smart Card reader.)

Anyway, PDL seems simple enough to use. Does anyone know of any issues? Anyone know of something better? PGP has quite the reputation, but I don't know what else can be trusted.

PGP Disk is good,
yet, the best is: www.jetico.com (BestCrypt), but not for free...although it worth buying!

wes... what are you hiding anyway?


Harmonizing new illusions...
ICQ: 67751342

Wouldn't you like to know?

you know.. you could always ROT-13 the file..

Hah!! the good-ol' days...

...bonus points if you know what ROT-13 was...


Harmonizing new illusions...
ICQ: 67751342