Encryption Techniques
Basically, in the computer world, encryption gets used two ways: for securing
email and for securing files and file systems (whole harddrives). Needless
to say, there's many good programs that do one or the other, and even both.
Some are expensive, and some very good ones are free (open source).
Encryption
is a technique of "locking up" data using an algorithm (aka cipher)
to make it unreadable to anyone except those having a key. It's a long-standing
science in its own right that actually goes back to ancient times. With
the advent of computers, it's taken on new life.
There's a variety of algorithms used for computer encryption and it can
get a bit confusing. Ten years ago, 40-bit encryption was the standard in
Windows itself, with 128-bit encryption being gradually adopted (there were
export controls in place). DES
was the state-of-the-art at one time. Today, the AES
algorithm is for most purposes the government standard.
Securing Files and File Systems
Often computers contain some sensitive data. Accounting and banking data
come to mind, first and foremost. Intellectual property could be considering
sensitive. For the most part, many protections are built into programs that
generate such data, like accounting apps which can be password protected.
That's any user's first line of defense.
Beyond that, computer users have increasingly sophisticated tools for encrypting
files. TrueCrypt
is a great app, perhaps the best of the lot. Cryptainer
LE and AxCrypt
are very good, too, and also free for the taking. These are great
programs for encrypting anything sensitive, say scanned ID's or tax information.
Two versions of Windows
Vista, Enterprise
and Ultimate,
have a built-in scheme called BitLocker. BitLocker has the capacity to lock
down a whole hard drive, whicih a bit extreme and poses risks of its own
(data recovery can become impossible).
The drawback to encrypting any files is that they may be unrecoverable if
a key or password is lost. If you're going to encrypt a lot of files, you
definitely want to create some documentation. We highly recommend backing
up unencrypted versions of files you do encrypt, say to a USB drive, and
then physically securing the drive in a strongbox or somewhere safe.
Securing Emails
Sending email is akin to mailing postcards. You're not going to have any
privacy if someone along the line stops to have a look. On the other hand,
given the sheer volume of email across the web, there's too much to look
at. But emails do get intercepted and read for sensitive data by more sophisticated
hackers (that includes law enforcement). It's something to bear in mind
if you're a business and your emailing sensitive documents.
For email encryption to work, both the sender and receiver have to be familiar
with any encryption procedure. The standard for email encryption is PGP,
of which there's several versions, all of which meet the OpenPGP
standard. As programs, all the PGP versions require client-based email.
There is one web-based email service, Hushmail,
that meets the OpenPGP standard, so that's an option. PGP will also encrypt
files and file systems too.