On 6/23/07, Jeff Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I would like the ability to encrypt / decrypt a folder on the hard drive > regardless of what type of files are in it. For example, I have a folder > with QuickBooks in it. I would like to encrypt that folder when I am not > using it and decrypt it when I want to open QuickBooks.
GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) is the Open Source implementation of the PGP algorithms and utilities. You can use this to encrypt and decrypt files. The big advantage of GPG is that it is using a serious encryption scheme and is not as feasible to crack. The problem with password-encrypting ZIP files, last I checked, is that it is relatively easy to brute-force crack a ZIP file. I had a client who mistyped their password on a ZIP file. I found a couple of utilities that attempted to open the file starting with 'aaaaaaaaa' and looping through 'ZZZZZZZ' Trying tens of thousands of passwords per minute, you can recover most files in a few days. I am not a cryptographic expert, but my understanding is that the GPG/PGP files are orders of magnitude more difficult (i.e., instead of days, substitute 'years'). If you really just want convenience, you might want to stick with ZIP files, but if you need to have a greater level of security, for example for backups with clients' sample data, you might want to take a look at GPG. http://www.gnupg.org/ -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
