Encryption apps

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I use an Encryption app and was wondering if their are any differences in their performance and security.  I see a number of these and the size ranges from a few KB’s to many MB’s.  Do they all just do the same thing.  The one I use has a small footprint, uses 256-bit AES encryption, are password protected and has right click functionality.  Do I need more than this?  I use this for all personal data.

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What version of Windows do you have?
What is the Encryption app you are using?

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I am using Win 7 HP 64 bit and the program I currently use is called “Encrypt on click”.

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Well… can’t be sure without analyzing the application specifically.

See, AES256 is quite good against direct decryption… but any given implementation may be vulnerable to side-channel attacks, as in timing-based or similar, as well as key sniffing (being a symmetric-key cipher).

In certain kinds of situations a public/private key cipher might be more secure.

Performance… well, that depends on hardware, different platforms are best served by somewhat different implementations. (Availability of AES-NI acceleration and…)

Other things you might want in some situations include mounting a container as a virtual disk, so you wouldn’t need to have the decrypted content stored on non-volatile memory to open it in another application; key management so you don’t accidentally reuse passwords when sharing files with different people; alternate key input methods so that the key cannot be copied for example by keyboard logging or screen capture; etc…

Almost all of that is situational, so depends on other things.

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Side channel and timing attacks are not relevant on a local PC, unless someone has installed malware designed for just that – not going to happen IMO.

Encrypt on click seems to be a ZIP program with password abilities. As such it probably uses the Windows ZIP functions so it is likely to be secure for ordinary users – maybe not gov etc.

As you use it for all personal data, why not just use Windows / Veracrypt to encrypt the disk?

cheers, Paul

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I cannot seem to find Veracrypt on my Win 7 machine.

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Learn more, fresh from France: https://www.veracrypt.fr/

Paul T’s wording might have suggested a Microsoft product native in Windows, rather than an alternative option.

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anonymous wrote:

I cannot seem to find Veracrypt on my Win 7 machine.

VeraCrypt encryption software review

https://www.ghacks.net/2018/09/14/veracrypt-encryption-software-review/

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Disk encryption in Windows

Windows Bitlocker: Windows Pro and above
Veracrypt: Open source encryption software

Sorry about the confusion.

cheers, Paul

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Minor corrections:

Paul T wrote:

Windows Bitlocker: Windows Pro and above

Windows 8+ Pro and above, Windows 7 Enterprise and maybe Ultimate? For those who may still need 7… and as historic information.

Paul T wrote:

Veracrypt: Open source encryption software

… with a different feature set. No centralized manageability, but a “plausible deniability” operating mode.

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