Just because you have antivirus software installed on your PC doesn’t mean a zero-day Trojan can’t steal your personal data. The best encryption software keeps you safe from malware (and the NSA).
Imagine a cat burglar who gets through your home security, cracks your safe, and makes off with the specifications document for your billion-dollar invention. Now imagine what happens when the burglar unfolds the document and find that it’s entirely written in code. Foiled again! And don’t worry; you don’t have to be a modern DaVinci, learning to write in a secret code. You get even better protection by keeping all your digital documents in encrypted form when you’re not working on them. A cipher that you can remember is a cipher that can be cracked. Modern encryption algorithms, on the other hand, are effectively unbreakable. Which encryption tool should you choose? It depends on how you plan to manage your sensitive documents. We’ve collected and evaluated a variety of encryption tools to help you choose. Note that the tools covered here focus on protecting local copies of your important files. If your needs involve sharing secrets with others, you may want to consider using an email encryption tool instead of, or in addition to, a local encryption utility. File Encryption, Whole-Disk Encryption, and VPNs In this roundup, I’m specifically looking at products that encrypt files, not at whole-disk solutions like Microsoft’s Bitlocker. Whole-disk encryption is an effective line of defense for a single device, but it doesn’t help when you need to share encrypted data. You can use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to encrypt your own internet traffic. From your PC to the VPN company’s server, all your data is encrypted, and that’s a great thing. However, unless you’re connected to a secure HTTPS website, your traffic is not encrypted between the VPN server and the site. Of course, the VPN’s encryption doesn’t just magically rub off on files you share. Using a VPN is a great way to protect your internet traffic when you’re traveling, but it’s not a solution for encrypting your local files. No Back Doors When the FBI needed information from the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, they asked Apple for a back door to get past the encryption. But no such back door existed, and Apple refused to create one. The FBI had to hire hackers to get into the phone. Why wouldn’t Apple help? Because the moment a back door or similar hack exists, it becomes a target, a prize for the bad guys. It will leak sooner or later. As my colleague Max Eddy pointed out in a past article about one-time Attorney General Barr’s ignorance of encryption, « a backdoor is still a door and even a door with a lock on it can be opened.
