file vaults :: essays research papers

buck bank pretermit HelpThis software is rid to use.In a recent article in Defense News (Vol 12 No 31) Aug 4-10, 1997William Crowell, National Security Agency deputy director said "Ifa product of 64-bit strength were used by a military org... itwould need 6,000 to 7,000 years to recover sightly one message."1. File hurdle - 64-bit (8 bytes) block encryption algorithmvariable length key up to 448 bitsFile Vault - Places a number of user selected files in a singleself extracting / self decrypting executable file called a FileVault. A File Vault can be sent easily to allone over theinternet and only accessed with your password. The recipient of aFile Vault does not have to have any special software installed todecrypt or access a file vault. Each File Vault is totally selfcontained. This makes for easy attaching, receiving and generaluse.File Vault allows you to open the vault, access the files, thenclose the vault which performs a secure wipe of the files from thedisk s urface. In an encrypted file vault, filename information isencrypted too, so if someone examines the vault with a diskeditor, no information on contents is gettable other than theoptional description line entered during creation. Great for "Your eyeball Only" files...The encryption algorithm is the highly regarded BLOWFISH by BruceSchneier, world renowned Cryptographer. See VGP information belowfor more detail.File Vault is available at... www.alcuf.ca/fv- - - -A word on compression When you use Winzip or other compressionutilities from Windows, they often will create temporary filesthat can reside on the users system which are complete duplicatefiles, or parts of files that you would rather be fully secured.Therefore, rather than zipping files and containing them in avault, build a vault first which securly containes your files, andthen create the zip (or other archive) file. That way anytemporary stuff created by the archiver will be encrypted andremain secure.- - - -2. O ther free utilities included with File Vault---------------------------------------------The following utilities are stand alone utilities that resideon your File Vault directory. These can be moved or deleted asyou wish.DISKWIPE.EXE (and diskinfo.dll) - this utility is used tosecurly remove deleted information from a hard drive to preventundeleting. Lets say you have a bunch of stuff you justdeleted, and need to make sure nothing that was on the systemcan be undeleted and accessed again. This utility creates afile the size of the free remaining infinite on your drive andfills it with space, then deletes it.