Privacy/Encryption Software, Lemons, and Economy

This started out as a simple link to an interesting article or two on security products, and somehow ballooned into needless ruminating over encryption tools. Ah well, but by bearing with this, you’ll get three solid recommendations for file encryption, and couple good reads besides.

Requisite image of an old lock of some sort to indicate the subject is, indeed, security.

Let’s start off with some good software recommends:

Like some, I’m a bit more concerned with my privacy than it is healthy, both on and off the net, in electronic forms and otherwise. In the electronic world, I do my best to use decent passwords, common sense, and at the file level, three free tools, based on their use cases:

• TrueCrypt: best when it is useful or necessary to encrypt huge slabs of data, such as a file/folder hierarchy, a whole disk or partition, or a significant portion of a flash drive.
  • Pros: A highly scrutinized bit of software, and thus less likely to break its promise of security. Once an encrypted volume is mounted, it behaves just like a separate disk. Cross-platform. Can be run portably.
  • Cons: Complicated. A bit clumsy to use, even with knowledge of the command line switches and shortcuts. Portable use requires administrative rights. Encryption containers are basically unresizable, meaning you’ll need to over-estimate the container size, and live with it.
• AxCrypt: good for encrypting individual or small groups of files seamlessly with Windows.
  • Pros: Supports near-invisible integration with Windows for painless use: once a file is encrypted, you can open, modify, and save it like any other file, prompted with a password at appropriate times. Small and tight, the install package is less than two megabytes.
  • Cons: requires installation, so rather limited in portable use. Doesn’t recurse subdirectories. No apparent cross-platform support.
• dsCrypt: also good for encrypting individual or small groups of files, and has the added benefit of being portable and install-free.
  • Pros: Doesn’t require  installation or administration rights. It’s incredibly tiny and fast, and sports an easy drag-n-drop usage. One tiny executable does it all.
  • Cons: Doesn’t integrate with the OS, though this is a plus for its use case as a portable app. Encrypted files require the parent app decryption, whereas AxCrypt can create self-decrypting executables. Doesn’t recurse directories, and can only be operated by drag-n-drop, though this can arguably be part of its built-in anti-brute-force features. Not cross-platform, but its standalone nature should make it easy to use in Wine or similar.
• fsekrit: an encrypted notepad replacement, for private notes or password storage. I’m not aware that it’s been designed with anti-brute-force measures in mind, so use long passwords with it.