File Vault The Following Utilities example essay topic

File Vault HelpParisien Research Corporation Copyright (C) 1996 Harvey ParisienEmail: his software is free to use. In a recent article in Defense News (Vol 12 No 31) Aug 4-10, 1997 William Crowell, National Security Agency deputy director said 'Ifa product of 64-bit strength were used by a military org... it would take 6,000 to 7,000 years to recover just one message. ' 1. File Vault - 64-bit (8 bytes) block encryption algorithm variable length key up to 448 bits File Vault - Places a number of user selected files in a single self extracting / self decrypting executable file called a File Vault. A File Vault can be sent easily to anyone over the internet and only accessed with your password. The recipient of a File Vault does not have to have any special software installed to decrypt or access a file vault.

Each File Vault is totally self contained. This makes for easy attaching, receiving and general use. File Vault allows you to open the vault, access the files, then close the vault which performs a secure wipe of the files from the disk surface. In an encrypted file vault, filename information is encrypted too, so if someone examines the vault with a disk editor, no information on contents is available other than the optional description line entered during creation. Great for 'You rEyes Only' files... The encryption algorithm is the highly regarded BLOWFISH by BruceSchneier, world renowned Cryptographer.

See VGP information below for more detail. File Vault is available at... web - - -A word on compression: When you use Winzip or other compression utilities from Windows, they often will create temporary files that can reside on the users system which are complete duplicate files, or parts of files that you would rather be fully secured. Therefore, rather than zipping files and containing them in a vault, build a vault first which se curly contains your files, and then create the zip (or other archive) file. That way any temporary stuff created by the archive r will be encrypted and remain secure. - - - -2.

Other free utilities included with File Vault The following utilities are stand alone utilities that reside on your File Vault directory. These can be moved or deleted as you wish. DISK WIPE. EXE (and disk info. dull) - this utility is used remove deleted information from a hard drive to. Let's say you have a bunch of stuff you just deleted, and need to make sure nothing that was on the system can be un deleted and accessed again. This utility creates a file the size of the free remaining space on your drive and fills it with space, then deletes it.

This means that any files recovered (by modifying your fat table) will only contain space. FILE WIPE. EXE - this utility is used to se curly remove a file. It opens the file, writes it full of space, then closes it and deletes it. This way any attempt to recover the file will prove rather uninteresting. 3.

Information on VGP the Encryption Editor VGPWIN Encryption Editor VGPWIN is a simple WINDOWS editor for text files, much like NOTEPAD, but offers an optional encryption feature. VGP also uses clipboard features that allow you to swap text to / from another application with ease. VGPWIN will also encrypt and decrypt disk files using the same powerful encryption routines. The Encryption Method The Encryption Engine is a multi-pass system by Parisien Research Corporation. VGP gives you a high level of data protection since one pass is the highly regarded BLOWFISH algorithm by BruceSchneier, world renowned Cryptographer. Because of the implementation of the Blowfish algorithm, the encryption produced is several orders of magnitude stronger than DES (Digital Encryption Standard).

Blowfish is a 64-bit (8 bytes) block encryption algorithm. It uses a variable length key. The key length can be up to 448 bits. It is extremely fast and is so secure that it can not be sold outside the U.S. due to federal export restrictions [ITAR].

VGP and File Vault are free to use. -- -How to use File Vault: 1. Select files to place in a vault 2. Describe your vault (optional) 3. Define location (default is last location) 4.

Define auto exec command. This is OPTIONAL. If you want the user to receive 1 or more files and then be forced to run a specific file (executable or otherwise) you can place that command here. For example, let's say I create a vault containing a file called beach. b mp.

If I define the optional auto exec command as beach. system should execute the file using the correct application. See info on Settings. If you highlight one of the files in 'Selected Source files for Vault " and double click on the text box for the optional auto exec command, the highlighted file will be automatically inserted. 5.

Define Vault Name (default is fv YYMMDD) 6. Provide a password (optional) 7. Build Vault Settings: The very first time a user opens a File Vault, a settings file is created. The settings file is a list of settings relating file Extensions with related Programs. The format of the file is extension = program i.e. TXT = NOTEPAD.

EXE BMP = C: PROGRA~1 ACCESS~1 MS PAINT. EXE This information is built from the win. in file settings once, on the first occasion you open a vault. You can then add to this file as required. -- -Parisien Research Corporation Copyright (C) 1996 Harvey ParisienEmail:.