AES (AE-2) Encryption/Compression Question

[HuddaDudda]

Long time reader, first time poster and I am hoping someone here can help me out. I am looking for a AES (AE-2) 256-Bit Encryption program (like winzip) or any other encryption/compression software that does not allow the opening of the archive showing the files and/or directories unless the password is entered first.

Here's why. I own my own company (home based) that is on a local NAS networked server where I keep my business documents. I have an FTP server which I can connect to at 128 SSL to transfer my daily backups (or full) to each night. I know WinZip 10 Pro uses 256-Bit AES encryption but since its stored in a .zip file, if anyone was to get their hands on the actual file you can still open it and view its contents (directories and files) without the password. Now I might be being a bit paranoid but why would I encrypt something at 256 when you can double click and see the files? This is also concerning me because some of our file names are named per our customers (for example - customer1.xls or customer2.doc) and anyone with that file could still "see" private data without extracting the files with the password.

So I am looking for some type of backup program that will compress files and encrypt them with 256 Bit Encryption with a password, that does not allow any type of viewing of the files or directories without entering the correct password first. Even if someone knows of a good image cloning software from a Networked Drive that has compression/encryption capabilties that would work instead is fine too. I just want to make my data secure as possible to transfer, because who knows where some of this data is being stored I want to be safe.

[rdsu]

Well, for what you want you can try the WinRAR (http://www.win-rar.com), but it use AES 128 bit password encryption that it's more than enought...

It is very stable and fast, so give it a try ;)

[HuddaDudda]

Thanks for the reply but I really need 256 and winrar does not mask any rar or zip files - so winzip/winrar will not work. I need something that "MASKS" the zip files names for added security. With these programs even though they add a password you can still 'see' the files when you double click them. Thanks for the suggestion but WINRAR will not work.

[rdsu]

WinRAR have an option to only see the files after put the password, but if you need 256 bit...

[HuddaDudda]

Gotcha - I missed it and I do already have a trial version on my machine (along with some others) for testing this stuff so thanks for pointing me in this direction. If anyone else knows of a program with 256 protection please let me know. Also I am pushing it now but a program that also creates and backups the file remote and automatically would be REALLY nice for full automation.

[rdsu]

Nice :)

You can take a look at this site: Best Archive Tool (http://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/ArchiveTools/index.html) ;)

Regards

[ghost16825]

-{ Quote: "Long time reader, first time poster and I am hoping someone here can help me out. I am looking for a AES (AE-2) 256-Bit Encryption program (like winzip) or any other encryption/compression software that does not allow the opening of the archive showing the files and/or directories unless the password is entered first.

Here's why. I own my own company (home based) that is on a local NAS networked server where I keep my business documents. I have an FTP server which I can connect to at 128 SSL to transfer my daily backups (or full) to each night. I know WinZip 10 Pro uses 256-Bit AES encryption but since its stored in a .zip file, if anyone was to get their hands on the actual file you can still open it and view its contents (directories and files) without the password. Now I might be being a bit paranoid but why would I encrypt something at 256 when you can double click and see the files? This is also concerning me because some of our file names are named per our customers (for example - customer1.xls or customer2.doc) and anyone with that file could still "see" private data without extracting the files with the password.

So I am looking for some type of backup program that will compress files and encrypt them with 256 Bit Encryption with a password, that does not allow any type of viewing of the files or directories without entering the correct password first. Even if someone knows of a good image cloning software from a Networked Drive that has compression/encryption capabilties that would work instead is fine too. I just want to make my data secure as possible to transfer, because who knows where some of this data is being stored I want to be safe." }-

Use SSH with an SSH server to protect the endpoint transfer. Or zip the file and create a self-decrypting archive using PGP. Don't rely on Zip compression utilities to encrypt files as well - often they use a flakey implementation which doesn't make the files very secure at all, regardless of what encryption algorithm they were attempting to use. Winzip is notorious for this.