What to use for file encryption?

[Brett]

I'd like to encrypt and password protect certain text files. What is a good
free program for doing this or is there a way to do it in Windows?

There are several free encrypting tools available on download.com but I
wasn't sure how safe they are.

Thanks,
Brett

 

[Malke]

I'd like to encrypt and password protect certain text files. What is
a good free program for doing this or is there a way to do it in
Windows?

There are several free encrypting tools available on download.com but
I wasn't sure how safe they are.

Thanks,
Brett

Here are some programs that were suggested by MVP Torgeir Bakken in one
of his posts:

SafeGuard PrivateDisk
http://www.utimaco.com/indexmain.html

(Torgeir is using their "SafeGuard Easy" product for local hard disk
encryption on all laptops, and is very satisfied with the product).

The BestCrypt product found at http://www.jetico.com/ also looks
interesting. Just be sure to export any encryption keys and save them
in a safe place (outside your computer).

And here are some links about MS encryption:

http://tinyurl.com/6l6xx - MS information about EFS (Encryption)
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/encrypt.htm - encryption info
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/private.htm - making stuff private

Malke

 

[Vanguard]

I'd like to encrypt and password protect certain text files. What is
a good free program for doing this or is there a way to do it in
Windows?

There are several free encrypting tools available on download.com but
I wasn't sure how safe they are.

EFS (Encrypting File System) is available in Windows 2000 Professional
and Windows XP Professional (but NOT the Home version). Because EFS is
based on the cert used by the logged on user, there is a vulnerability
to EFS based on the vulnerability of login credentials (i.e., there are
several methods used to hack passwords to allow a user to get back into
their account or hack into someone else's, and once logged in as that
user then you can use their EFS certificate to read and even unprotect
the EFS-protected files). It would help if you actually mentioned WHICH
version of Windows that you have.

I've heard of PGP's encryption for drives, DriveCrypt, and SafeBoot but
they all cost money. http://www.truecrypt.org/ is free but I haven't
used it (I've always had the Pro version of Windows to give me EFS).

Regardless of what method you use, make sure to export the security
certificate to a floppy or CD and lock it up somewhere. You will need
it when (not if) you reinstall Windows and restore your encrypted data
from backups.