vxb@cbnewsl.att.com (vern.bradner) (05/25/90)
Can anyone suggest shareware or commercial software that I could
use to "secure" files on a diskette?
I have nearly 300 files on a 1.44 meg floppy disk, many of which
contain proprietary information. I can't easily lock up the
diskette all the time. I could encrypt each of the files,
but that would be a pretty long process given the number of files
I have. Instead, I would like to make the disk unreadable
without a password key (that sounds a bit like a virus which
I don't want!).
Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks - Vern Bradner
att!md3b2p!vbradner
vbradner@md3b2p.att.com
kperson@plains.UUCP (Kerry Person) (05/27/90)
You could use PKZip/PKUnZip, and specify storage only (no compression) if you are concerned about the time overhead. Specify encryption when Zipping, and have the application UnZip with the appropriate password. With no decompression involved, the read time of a file should be very close to that of a file that is not Zipped, except for the time it takes to load PKUnZip into memory. And you can reconstruct any or all files to any drive, or pipe the output anywhere you like. You can add, update, or delete files from the Zipfile as necessary. And if you change the extension on the name of the Zipfile, no one even has to know that it was Zipped. Kerry Person (kperson@plains.NoDak.edu)
peter@ontmoh.UUCP (Peter Renzland) (05/28/90)
vxb@cbnewsl.att.com (vern.bradner) writes: > I have nearly 300 files on a 1.44 meg floppy disk, many of which > contain proprietary information. [...] > I could encrypt each of the files, Do it! (You sound as if you have an MS-DOS crypt.) you can write a script to do it all automatically. Or you can transfer all files to your Unix system, easily encrypt them automatically, then transfer back to MS-DOS diskette. You can use the same (secret, unguessable) key for all files. Each time you need a file you need to 1. decrypt 2. use 3. re-encrypt (I have two commands, hide and seek, which do 1 and 3 conveniently.) It's not very much work for each file, it works, and the risk from oversight is low -- one or two files left in the clear. You can have a bye command that checks for plaintext files in the secret directory hierarchy before ending a session, and also on startup, to reduce such risks. > Instead, I would like to make the disk unreadable without a password key > (that sounds a bit like a virus which I don't want!). (Doesn't sound at all like a virus to me.) If the (proposed) solution leaves the actual data blocks un-encrypted, then only the most ignorant villains will be deterred. I wouldn't trust it. Perhaps a *secure* shell might be the answer -- perhaps 4dos or some such wonder could be taught to decrypt/encrypt any file before/after giving it to programs to read/write. It could offer to prompt for a key at each reference, or use the same key for an entire session. The second option could be risky if you walk away from your PC during a session. There is also the technical problem of left-over, partially encrypted files when programs fail or are interrupted. -- Peter Renzland @ Ontario Ministry of Health 416/964-9141 peter@ontmoh.UUCP o, ,% /"> << Je danse, donc je suis. >>