Summary: Windows GUI recommendation for USB disk

[Ryan Malayter]

On 11/2/06, Henry Hertz Hobbit <hhhobbit at securemecca.net> wrote:
> 7-zip, like most zip programs encryption doesn't even come close
> to the level of protection that you are getting with GnuPG.  Even
> if you are using the lowest level cipher GnuPG provides, it is a
> quantum leap over the zip programs enciphering.  Quoting from
> the man page for zip (roughly comparable to 7-zip and probably
> uses the exact same code for enciphering):
>
>  (And  where  security  is  truly  important,  use strong
>  encryption such as Pretty Good Privacy  instead  of  the
>  relatively  weak encryption provided by standard zipfile
>  utilities.)
>

When encrypting to a *.7z file, 7-zip uses AES-256 in CBC mode, with a
passphrase-to-key function based on SHA-256. This is actually stronger
than most cipher preferences on OpenPGP keys. It is not the same as
the weak "winZip"-derived encryption. Of course, these files can only
be read by 7-zip, but it is free and open source. (It also compresses
a lot better than standard ZIP's DEFLATE algoritm, if more slowly).

-- 
   RPM
=========================
All problems can be solved by diplomacy, but violence and treachery
are equally effective, and more fun.
      -Anonymous