hello -

i remember reading a post a few weeks ago regarding file and data encryption software.  i am scanning and saving all of my personal data onto a flash drive and want to encrypt it.  what was the software that was suggested ?  anyone remember this topic ?

thanks

tom

Truecrypt:

http://www.truecrypt.org/

http://www.truecrypt.org/

What they said ^^.

We had a nice thread about it some time back.  I don't remember how long ago.

Thanks for the info.  I was curious about this too.

For another approach, you might consider using PKZIP to creat a self-extracting encrypted zipfile.  PKZIP can store and reconstitute entire trees of folders & files and will allow you use a pretty long encryption key (if you like) - the limits on the version I have is 255 characters - any ASCII character -IIRC.

The main advantage of this approach is that, once you produce the encrypted zipfile, you don't need any special software or hardware to get to your data.  All you need is the zipfile, the password, and a computer and you can reconstitute the entire tree structure (folders and files) of the zipped folder.  And if you are worried about losing the UFD the file resides on, just e-mail the encrypted zipfile to yourself (last thing you do before shutting down your computer before bugging out) - the copy of the excrypted zipfile will remain on your mail server until you remove it...  AND you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection...

The only disadvantage is that there might be a learning curve to get you some PKZIP savy...

As long as we are talking about UFDs (USB Flash Drives), you might consider loading a few basic "portable"*** apps on a UFD for use "on the run" - e.g.: a portable e-mail client (Portable Thunderbird), a portable web browser (Portable Firefox), perhaps a portable office suite (Portable Open Office), etc...

*** >>> "Portable" applications are applications that can be run directly from  UFD without actually being installed on the host computer.  Portable apps also do not leave any "footprints" (temp files, cookies, etc.) on the host computer when they are done running...    A few portable apps can be found HERE...  Happy computing!

LINK

I believe this is the post that is refered to....

I have a USB key with me at all times. In addition to important documents I also have several recent, high resolution photos of my daughter, along with a high res scan of her fingerprint card and text file with complete physical description. God forbid if anything ever happened to her I wouldn't want to waste time screwing around trying to find a recent photo/description for the police.

truecrypt does all of the above, and more –– and has far, far, far stronger encryption (AES, among others).

ar-jedi

With all due respect, Sir - PKZIP does "more" than I mentioned as well...  In terms of encryption strength - both have encyption capabilities that are OVERKILL for this application - the (possible) fact that one is more overkill than another is rather meaningless to me at least... (OBTW - from the PKWARE website >>> "Strong password-based data file protection - PKZIP supports AES or 3DES encryption to protect valuable information" - FYI...  And if that isn't "enough", PKWARE also makes another product called "SecureZIP"

For me at least, PKZIP has other, more useful advantages over truecrypt - pkzip is ubiquitous and essentially defines the standard for archiving/compression...  yes there are others but PKZIP is the standard against which all others are judged.  As such, it is also the one that almost all 3rd party programmers make their software "compatible" with - there is no shortage of freeware/cheapware products that are PKZIP compatible.  I think of PKZIP as the 1911 of the compression/encryption world...  There are others but...

I store everything of mine in encrypted volumes.  Truecrypt is one of my favorite pieces of open source software.

no, it's not.



like truecrypt, which is free, open-source (inspectable), cross-platform, proven, strong, has far more features, and is free.

ar-jedi

Bump for an excellent thread!

Thanks for the info. Looking into getting a USB Drive setup too.

+1 on all of this

PKZIP still exists? i use BZIP2 or 7Z if i have to archive things... much faster and better compression ratios

truecrypt is an awesome program... if you don't feel like encrypting the entire USB drive, you can create an encrypted file and keep the latest truecrypt installer on there unencrypted...

i don't know if they do this yet, but it's only a matter of time now the truecrypt supports full HDD encryption that they put some type of autoload utility on the flash drive so when you access it, poof it prompts you for a drive letter and passphrase to decrypt/mount the USB drive...