If you regularly exchange compressed files, you know that they can be password protected. But there’s much more you can do to make sure your files aren’t being taken advantage of. And the best part is, it doesn’t take long.
Today, we’ll tell you how (and why) to use the stronger AES encryption standard, how to set a password that’s nearly impossible to crack, and what software to use to create an encrypted zip file.
AES vs. Zip 2.0
AES is the exciting new encryption standard. It is already the industry standard. If you are dealing with encryption, you must use AES. It comes in two types, 128 bit and 256 bit. The 256-bit option allows you to store a larger encryption key, making it more secure.
Zip 2.0 is what most Zip software uses. In fact, that’s what the operating system itself uses. Standards are known to be very weak.
This is from WinZip’s help page for encryption:
The Zip 2.0 encryption format is known to be relatively weak and cannot provide protection from individuals who have access to specialized password recovery tools. You should not rely on Zip 2.0 encryption to provide strong security for your data. If you have important security requirements for your data, you should consider using WinZip’s AES encryption instead.
So we solved it. AES: Good. Zip 2.0: Bad.
Set up a secure password
Passwords play an important role in keeping your files secure. Yes, it’s encrypted, it can’t be broken by an app but if the password is 123456? It’s something a password recovery app would crack in a minute, which would allow it to decrypt the file.
Summary: We talked about setting up a strong password in depth in the Ultimate Password Guide, but here’s a brief summary.
- Keep it long, at least 12-15 characters
- Do not include any personal details
- Don’t use clear passwords like password or abc123
- Use uppercase, lowercase and special characters
Read our guide for more information but if you do these things, it will be very difficult for a piece of software to crack it. The goal is to create a password so complex that it takes years to crack an app, but at the same time it’s easy for you to remember.
Encrypt Zip with 7-Zip on Windows
As we said before, there aren’t many free apps that support the AES protocol. Luckily, every computer geek’s favorite app, 7-Zip, does.
To compress any file or folder, just right click, select 7-Zip -> Add to archive.
From this pop-up, give it a strong password as discussed above and from Encryption method select AES-256.
It’s important to note that the person you’re sending the zip file to will also need an app like 7-Zip to decrypt the file.
What did you encode?
We all know the benefits of encryption. Without the key, the file is essentially inaccessible. What did you encode? Maybe your iPhone, Android phone, files on your Android or USB? Let us know in the comments below.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
