Encryption Strengths

Discussion in 'Other Ghost Security Software' started by Rilla927, Dec 7, 2005.

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  1. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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    Hi folks,

    I have a question concerning encryption strength.

    Is 256 encryption strength sufficient for protecting files, folders, and self extracting files for email?

    Thanks
    Happy Holidays!:)
     
  2. Pilli

    Pilli Registered Member

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  3. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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    What about 256 bit AES ? Thanks for the read, interesting.
     
  4. TNT

    TNT Registered Member

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    sha-256 is not an encryption algorithm, is a hash algorithm. You can't "encrypt" files and folders with sha-256.

    By the way, a 256 bits key is good only if used with good algorithms. AES 256 is considered very secure; other good existing alternatives are Blowfish and Serpent.

    256 bit is more than adequate for symmetric encryption, but it is NOT (and I repeat, NOT) secure for public key encryption (such as PGP, GPG etc); public key encryption needs much bigger keys, PGP probably at least 1024 bits (but for safety I would actually use at least 2048 bits).
     
  5. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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    Hi TNT,

    I must have mixed that up. I don't know anything about this encryption stuff. I was actually looking for something that would be real strong/easy for email mainly and then of course my junk on puter. I don't like the idea of someone being able to intercept that information.

    Is that what you mean by Public Key (email)?

    Rilla927
     
  6. TNT

    TNT Registered Member

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    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_key_cryptography

    Yes, if you use it for e-mail-related stuff, chances are that you need public-key encryption rather than symmetric.
     
  7. Rilla927

    Rilla927 Registered Member

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