Every year, we are stepping into a more digitally oriented world where internet communication is standard. Sending, receiving, storing confidential data and messages are becoming to face real security threats and exposing people’s private information to being stolen or misused.
It means that if hackers break into your computer and steal all the data, you will still be safe because they will not be able to decrypt the files if they do not know the key you have picked for encryption.
How Does Encryption Work In a Nutshell?
Let’s say you want to protect your files on the computer so that nobody can open the files even if they steal them. It would help if you had encryption software to take your files and encrypt them with your encryption key. That process takes some time because there are so many math calculations to complete the encryption. If you try to open the files after being encrypted, you will see that you will not be able to do that, and the only way is to decrypt them first.
If you lose the key or cannot remember the key, there is no way to restore the files.
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This article is oriented towards recommending some of the best encryption software you should check out in 2022.
VeraCrypt
Let’s start with a free encryption tool – VeraCrypt. VeraCrypt is open-source, free encryption software based on TrueCrypt, which by using many algorithms, encrypts your files, folders, hard drives and prevents them from being brute-forced. If you look at their official FAQ page, it is clearly said that there is no possible way to decrypt files without a password or a key used for encryption. Even if you go the other way, trying to crack the password, it would be nearly impossible to do it.
You can choose from encrypting a single file, folder, USB drive, or a whole partition that you select. If you have a computer with a fast CPU that supports hardware acceleration, then the encryption will take 4-8 times less to complete. The most important thing about VeraCrypt is that once you encrypt the files and get a VeraCrypt volume disk for it, you will still use the disk as a standard hard disk, such as you can view images and play videos. You need to authenticate yourself with a password or a key.
VeraCrypt supports hash algorithms:
- RIPEMD-160
- SHA-256
- SHA-512
- Whirlpool
- Streebog
Folder Lock
With over 45 million users, Folder Lock is another excellent encryption software used to encrypt everything: files, folders, partitions, portable drives, etc. It is only available to Windows users, but there is also a version for Android and iOS devices. It is a fast tool with real-time encryption and an option for continuous sync and backup. Each password user chooses for encryption is not stored on any server. You are the only one who has access to the files and the knower of the password.
They use 256-bit AES encryption which is currently the perfect choice for file storage. Combining it with a good key, you can feel safe and not worry about whether somebody can crack the password and decrypt your files.
Folder Lock comes in two versions: Folder Lock and Folder Lock Lite. The latter is a minimized version of it offering encryption service but with weaker hash algorithms and no backup option.
Pricing:
- Folder Lock $39.95
- Folder Lock $24.95
Boxcryptor
Boxcryptor is an encryption service for cloud-based storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more. It encrypts the data coming from your local machine before it hits and gets uploaded to your cloud services. Over 20 cloud providers are supported, and Boxcryptor uses the leading end-to-end encryption algorithms (AES-256 and RSA-4096) to ensure you will never get exposed to data breaches.
Being a Boxcryptor user, you have full access to their mobile apps, enabling you to authenticate yourself and use the encrypted files directly from your mobile phone. For non-commercial use, it gives you an encryption service for one cloud provider that you choose from their list, and you can access it on two devices. If you feel like you need more, you can always upgrade and get more up to unlimited providers & unlimited devices.
Pricing:
- Free $0 (1 cloud provider, two devices, no commercial use)
- Personal $48 / year (unlimited providers and devices, filename encryption, no commercial use)
- Business $96 / year (unlimited use, commercial use)
NordLocker
NordLocker is a cloud-based encryption service that encrypts the files from your local machine and uploads them to the cloud. You can encrypt files with any extension, PDF files, documents, videos, photos, pretty much anything you want to be secured. By pushing the files to the cloud storage that you get once you create an account, you can access them on any other device. All you need to do is to log in, and NordLocker will fetch decrypted files for you. If you do not want to store your files in the cloud, you can choose to encrypt them and keep them locally on your computer.
Pricing:
- Free $0 / month (3 GB storage, end-to-end encryption)
- 2 TB $7.99 / month (2 TB storage, end-to-end encryption)
- 500 GB $3.19 / month (500 GB storage, end-to-end encryption)
Secure IT 2000
With a strong 448 bits Blowfish encryption, Secure IT is an all-in-one encryption software that can be used for securing your files, folders, USB drive, emails – anything. It is supported on any Windows-based OS, and the encryption process is relatively fast if we consider how complex and strong algorithms are used for it.
Pricing:
- Trial 30 Days Free
- Secure IT File & Folder Encryption $29.95
Conclusion
Today, everyone is at risk of data loss or theft. Fortunately, software solutions like the ones listed in this article are there with the role of helping and protecting us as much as possible; so why not give them a try?
I am happy with boxcryptor for some years now. It also allows you to encrypt file directories on your local hard drive, and it provides a very nice service “Whisply” for sending securely encrypted files, that can be password protected, have an expiration date, and that can expire after a certain number of downloads ( whisp.ly/en ).