There is a saying that Alaska is what America used to be and in a way this product from Anchorage-based software firm Juzt-Reboot Technology is a bit like what software used to be. Opening up the package reveals a parallel port dongle and installation had an old-fashioned look to it.
Nostalgia aside, the purpose of the application is to stop private data from being accessed by unauthorised users. Not only does it offer file encryption is employs steganographic-like techniques to hide files in images. It calls this "Mask Encryption".
The software uses DES and Triple DES to encrypt files. But encryption only goes as far as 128-bit, the more paranoid would welcome much longer key lengths than this.
Installation as mentioned earlier had an old-fashioned feel to it but it was quick, efficient and trouble-free. The console is rather quaint too with its bright colours and large icons.
It is a pretty simple affair to encrypt files, it just involves clicking on one of the brightly-coloured icons selecting a file, a form of encryption and clicking OK. We tried the mask encryption to hide the file in an image, which it duly does. However, the user must also remember to give the file an innocuous name too – otherwise people will wonder why that picture of a kitten has a file name of "confidential contacts{doc}.bmp".
A handy feature of the product is it allows multiple users to encrypt files for their own use. Handy if the machine is share among a group of people.
The program also requires the first user to access the product to create an emergency disk. Should a problem happen with the computer, the disk is the only way to decrypt files, so it's very important to keep this safe and secure.
Files can also be encrypted from clicking on any file with the right mouse button. This is a handy feature but does not have the full range of feature available in the application itself.
One of those features is "TransEncrypt", which allows users to encrypt files as an executable which can be sent to another user (one without this application) to decrypt a file by just entering in a pre-agreed password.
Another useful feature is the Locker. Files dragged into the locker can be immediately encrypted without any fuss. Double-clicking on the files decrypts them just as easily.
On the whole, this application should be something we shouldn't like at all as it seems old fashioned. But in honesty this is a great application. It appears to be a security application that ticks all the right boxes. It is fast, efficient, easy-to-use and does exactly what it sets out to. Our only concern it the lack of longer encryption key lengths.
