Kruptos 2

By CHONG JINN XIUNG (Free apps for the security conscious, In.Tech, The Star 07 June 2007)

IF YOU own notebook or thumbdrive, chances are you are likely to be worried over the security of sensitive data stored on your devices.

With so many opportunities for a notebook to be stolen or a thumbdrive being misplaced, you are likely to need some form of protection.

File encryption is not an uncommon practice for mobile users with some notebooks possessing their own built-in encryption software.

Kruptos 2 is an easy-to-install application that helps encrypt your documents and files. The application is small (only 2.9MB) enough to fit on any thumbdrive, and can easily be installed on any desktop or notebook.

The application makes use of a Windows Explorer plug-in which allows you to encrypt/decrypt and shred on a standard Windows Explorer interface.

SECURE DATA: You can conduct projects on Kruptos 2 and encrypt multiple files or folders.

A simple right-click brings up the Kruptos option, allowing you to encrypt or decrypt files on the spot.

Sometimes, all it takes for an intruder to steal an important file is to look out for the relevant filename. Kruptos 2 is able to disguise filenames when files are encrypted while revealing the original any time you wish to view it.

The program has many customisable options to suit your needs, such as being able to automatically open a Word file, make some changes to the document and re-encrypt the file once you close it.

You can also produce self-extracting encrypted files (.exes) that contain encrypted files and software necessary to decompress the contents.

To decompress the contents of a self-extracting file, all you need is a password to unlock the file.

Just hitting the delete button and sending sensitive files to the recycling bin does not mean your data is completely destroyed. Someone can still go through the bin and recover your discarded information.

Kruptos 2 removes that risk by "shredding" them and removing all traces from your drive. Shredded files are destroyed to the point that they cannot be recovered by common undelete tools, the developers claim.

++++

www.kruptos2.co.uk