OT: keep your computer data secure

With the proliferation of computers, and especially notebooks, I guess many of us have data stored on them we would not wish other people to access - bank account details, personal letters, pics of you and that goat :) etc...

Secure cryptography has been around for a long time (PGP et al) but has generally required a degree in "Geekness" to use. Recently I happened upon an excellent piece of software which integrates into Windows and makes encrypting files and/or folders very simple indeed.

Main page
Download page

Scroll down and click on "AxCrypt-Setup.exe". When installing the programme will ask if you want to register for updates and if you will allow it to send some install data back to its Dad :) You have the option to say no to both questions. I said "no" to the first but allowed the second.

This programme is a "Sourceforge project" which means the code used to write it is available, constantly, on the internet for others to check and contribute to, this means there cannot be any "naughties" in the programme, ie, unlike something written by eeemm...? say... Microsoft... it cannot do things without you knowing. It also means it's "Freeware" and the authors wrote it because they wanted to, not to make any money from.

AxCrypt uses AES-128 encryption which is pretty secure and is, probably, uncrackable by all but major governments and they're probably not interested in your goat :)

This type of encryption relies upon a password and it's best if you choose one that is about 10 characters long and includes a capital, letter, numerical digit and a punctuation mark. However... should you forget your password your data is lost - forever! I chose "2goatsRule!" :)

Mike Harding