Encryption Strengths

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!

 

Hi Rilla, SHA256 is secure but as always any encryption is only as good as the strength of your chosen passphrase.

I am no expert but I did find this link interesting: http://oss.codepoet.no/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=100

HTH Pilli

 

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

 

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).

 

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

 

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.

 

Thanks TNT