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Here is a program (in VB of course)
http://www.network54.com/Realm/NoSee/
You can easily encrypt (very securely) your private info.
The techniques uses are spelled out and portions of the VB Source are provided for your info or use.
While files are encrypted, not even "File Recover" or similar utilities can recover the original file. This way, if someone steals your computer, they can't get your private info.
Mac
Nice idea, but I don't think it has any practical purpose.
Point 1: How do you recover the data? Just by using the same program? Well for obvious reasons this won't work.
Point 2: I don't understand... I suppose I'm supposed to sleep better at night because if someone breaks into my house and steals my computer, they won't get my passwords..?
I'm not dissing you at all. I think it's great that you've developed code that will do this (well done, even though I haven't looked at the code), but I doubt it could have any purpose in the real world. It could save it against hackers...
Hi, Sastraxi,
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and respond. :}
What you need to do in order to get a good idea of how it works is download the ZIP file and read the TXT file that might address your questions. You don't have to install or execute anything, just read the TXT. Of course, if you wanted to try the program, I would be flattered.
>Point 1: How do you recover the data? Just by using the same program? Well for obvious reasons this won't work.
I guess I don't understand your question. It works like this: Let's say you have a file called "2002 Federal Income Tax.xls", a spreadsheet with all your personal financial data. You encrypt it via NoSee with your password to get ""2002 Federal Income Tax_xls.c_a" (c_a means an encrypted file). Now, next year, you want to access this data to do next year's income tax (or whatever you do in Canada). Just drag the file to NoSee and enter your password and you get your file back. But in the meantime, your old file has been totally and securely erased from your hard disk and nobody can get it back. In its place is the new encrypted version of the file which I guarantee nobody will ever decrypt. Study the code and you will agree.
> Point 2: I don't understand... I suppose I'm supposed to sleep better at night because if someone breaks into my house and steals my computer, they won't get my passwords..?
Well, I sleep better because they won't get my social-security number and other personal data that people use for identity theft. Also, my visiting snoopy relatives who borrow my machine won't see any embarrassing data.
I developed NoSee for my own use, and put the "license" part in later prior to making it available to others.. A person can use it forever for free – no problem except swearing every 20 days that they are not using it for commercial purposes.
I have a simple control file (explained in the TXT) which is installed in a shortcut like this
Target: blah-blah-NoSee.exe "blah-blah-control file"
When I click on the shortcut, it decrypts the file needed by my home finance program and waits for me to complete my bookkeeping. When finished, it encrypts the files again. Simple, convenient and secure.
You really have to try it to believe it. (At any rate, I would appreciate a post on the NoSee Forum to fill it up a bit)
WinXP and win2k offer a nice way to encrypt your files. Ofcourse that's how I lost my documents :cool:
If you ever do that just make sure you take a backup of the encryption key
Hi, MrPolite,
Sorry to hear about that. What happened (in detail) to your encryption key?
That is the problem with long-key systems. It is hard to have both security from loss and security from not being able to find. If you write it down or make a copy, then you risk having it fall into the wrong hands. If you don't and forget it, you lose your files. Arrgh.
NoSee is based on a password you supply and hence don't forget (hopefully).
There is an elaborate process to ensure you don't accidentally use the wrong password. That would be worst case: To encrypt using "Molly went t0 t0wn" when your password really required a capital T0wn. Now you later cannot decrypt. So NoSee defends against that.
But lots of luck. Maybe you would like to download NoSee for the sole purpose of encrypting your encryption key so you can freely keep a copy around.
Mac
NTFS' Encryption would be far superior to this
This does not cover files on the FAT (c-drive) partition.
You have to put all your important data on the NTFS partition. But then if your computer crashes and you are trying to save some last-minute data using a floppy boot, you will find you can only see your FAT drive, the very place where you don't have your data. (And even if you could see the NTFS, security wouldn't let you in to those files)
NoSee will work in all environments, has security equal to 128 for reasonable amounts of data.
The benefit of trap-door security was always that only one person had to know the second key and thus you are not subjected to compromise by spys. NoSee (or any file encryption program) is also based on the only-one-person method and thus is equally secure, given a good sized password.
I would recommend trying NoSee - You might want to move some of your most active small important files (such as your daily bookkeeping) to the C-drive and use this security instead.
At any rate, the point is to write some programs in VB, not use some Bill Gates feature. Otherwise we can all logoff and go buy stuff from vendors. I spell out enough detail and code snippits that you could write your own NoSee.
I now see what you're doing with it... it looks very promising. We do all sorts of tax up here in Canada if you wonder (like the GST)... ;) Takes up a lot of our time!
Good job again :)
PS. Nothing against you meant by this of course, but I had this extremely EVIL ( :mad: :mad: ) Art teacher by the name of Mr. Mac a looooooong time ago... well you probably didn't need to know that. He was insane and threw chairs at students, and went to jail once... Yeah, anyway, I just thought I'd throw that in because I'm bored! :eek: