On Mon, 9 Oct 2000, Brian May wrote: > >>>>> "Francois" == Francois Fayard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Francois> Hi, Does anyone knows a software that encrypts files > Francois> with a password ? > > You seem to be asking specifically for symmetric encryption here (you > use the same key to encrypt and decrypt), as opposed to asymmetric > encryption (where you use a public to encrypt and a private key to > decrypt). > > While there are pros and cons in both methods, I have to wonder what > you need to encrypt files for. For most applications, asymmetric > encryption is better.
No, for most applications, symmetric encryption is better. It is stronger, faster, more standardized, better tested, etc. The asymmetric methods often use asymmetric encryption only to encrypt a key for a symmetric algorithm. That said, you might still consider using pgp, as I believe it has the ability to do symmetric encryption. Or, if you want *extremely* weak security (but enough to confuse your kid sister) then check out the unix command crypt. Damian Menscher -- --==## Grad. student & Sys. Admin. @ U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ##==-- --==## <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> www.uiuc.edu/~menscher/ Ofc:(217)333-0038 ##==-- --==## Physics Dept, 1110 W Green, Urbana IL 61801 Fax:(217)333-9819 ##==--
