What
does encryption do for me?
Encryption and cryptographic software
has been used in many different ways to
make systems more secure. This article
discusses only a few ways that such
software can make your system more
secure, including:
1) Encrypting your email
2) Encrypting your files
To programs are mentioned that will help
encrypt information. There are many more
programs out there that will help, but
these programs are good and a good place
to start as any. They have the added
benefit of both being free with source
code available.
Will encryption stop people from
accessing my information?
Encryption simply makes it harder for
people to gain access to important
information, like passwords or sensitive
information in a file. The first thing
you should know about encryption is that
the algorithm that is used to encrypt
can be simple or more complex and that
affects how securely what you have
encrypted is protected. Encryption
systems have been broken when the method
of encryption is understood by hackers
and is easy to break.
Why bother to encrypt my email?
It should be noted that email is far
less secure than paper mail for two very
good reasons: first, electronic data can
be accessed easily over an Internet and
secondly, electronic data is really
simple to copy. There is a very good
chance that someone has snooped around
in your email despite your best
intentions to stop it.
How do I go about encrypting my email?
There are many programs out there that
can help you encrypt your email. A very
popular one is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy)
or its Gnu offshoot GPG.
PGP (http://www.pgpi.org/)
self-describes itself this way: This "is
a program that gives your electronic
mail something that it otherwise doesn't
have: Privacy. It does this by
encrypting your mail so that nobody but
the intended person can read it. When
encrypted, the message looks like a
meaningless jumble of random characters.
PGP has proven itself quite capable of
resisting even the most sophisticated
forms of analysis aimed at reading the
encrypted text."
Why bother to encrypt my files?
The answer to this boils down to what
you store on your computer. If you have
financial data with important
information like social security
numbers, email addresses, account
numbers and passwords, then you open
yourself up to losing very valuable
information. Most corporate Internet
security employees will attest to the
widespread theft of very valuable
information. As long as you are
connected to the Internet you are
vulnerable.
How do I go about encrypting my files?
AxCrypt File Encryption Software
(http://axcrypt.sourceforge.net/)
Self-described as "Free Personal Privacy
and Security for Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP
with AES-128 File Encryption,
Compression and transparent Decrypt and
Open in the original application."
This was part
54 of the series watch for the
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