{"id":14114,"date":"2013-03-25T21:54:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T21:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yummy-wakame.com\/?p=14114"},"modified":"2016-10-07T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T09:37:25","slug":"which-is-safer-truecrypt-vs-encrypted-zip-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/2013\/03\/which-is-safer-truecrypt-vs-encrypted-zip-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Which is safer? TrueCrypt vs. Encrypted .zip files"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WinZip<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I did some research on which encryption method is safer for securely backing up extremely sensitive data like my Bitcoin wallet.<\/strong> I’ve been using the most popular WinZip<\/a> and the free 7-Zip<\/a> for years to AES encrypt<\/a> my files (as regular encryption is far too easy to crack). For a while it was very secure but hackers have already identified security weaknesses with AES<\/a>. So today I moved over, finally, to TrueCrypt<\/strong><\/a> thanks to the suggestion of a well-respected friend in the industry who also gave me the anonymous cellphone tipoff<\/a>. So I’m going to save you some time and run through…<\/p>\n

The advantages of switching to TrueCrypt<\/h3>\n

TrueCrypt<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is FREE. So is 7-Zip<\/a>, but WinZip<\/a>\u00a0is not.<\/p>\n

TrueCrypt’s method involves turning the opened vault into a virtual drive which is way more secure than WinZip or 7-Zip. Every time you open a file inside a .zip archive, they will decompress and decrypt the file straight to a temporary folder on your harddrive. When you close the file, 7-Zip just deletes it which is traceable and can be recovered by unscrupulous people. WinZip securely wipes the temporary file — much safer. But TrueCrypt doesn’t have this problem at all, since the file remains only in the encrypted virtual vault (which is being temporarily suspended\/held in your RAM not written your HDD).<\/p>\n

Secondly, whether a zip file is encrypted or not, anyone with access to your zip file can still peer at the names of the files inside it which has been a real file-renaming hassle for me in the past. With encrypted .zip files, the password is only required if someone tries to open, view or decompress a file inside it. TrueCrypt does not have this issue at all as the entire virtual volume is completely unviewable until the password is specified.<\/p>\n

Finally, TrueCrypt is easier to use because (unless you install it on your USB stick) to Windows your TrueCrypt vault is treated as a regular drive, so once its decrypted you can access the files seamlessly without any hassle just like you would from a USB stick or an external hard drive or a CD, or your regular hard drive for that matter. With .zip programs you can only access the files inside an AES-encrypted .zip file through your compression program, each and every time they are accessed. Such a pain.<\/p>\n

The advantages of sticking with .zip software<\/h3>\n

The total file size of a .zip file is allowed to change dynamically as you add and remove files from the archive. A TrueCrypt vault, because it is treated as a regular drive, has to have a set size. So you have to start by making it big enough for everything you might ever put into it.<\/p>\n

And if you’re already using .zip archives all over the place, it will take some time and hassle to switch over to the new format initially.<\/p>\n

However I think these small disadvantages are worth the hassle for true encrypted security and peace of mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I did some research on which encryption method is safer for securely backing up extremely sensitive data like my Bitcoin wallet. I’ve been using the most popular WinZip and the free 7-Zip for years to AES encrypt my files (as regular encryption is far too easy to crack). For a while it was very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[212,271,239,235],"tags":[398],"class_list":["post-14114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogalog","category-free-stuff","category-geek-out","category-nifty-hacks-and-tips","tag-hacks-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yummy-wakame.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}