Everyone can benefit from encrypting important files, but some encryption tools require technical skills beyond the norm. Would you know how to exchange public encryption keys or choose the best encryption algorithm? EncryptionSafe Pro skips the confusing parts. Just drop files onto it, and they’re encrypted—it’s that simple. Basic encryption comes free, and advanced features don’t cost a lot. That said, AxCrypt Premium manages to be almost as simple while invisibly using public key cryptography for secure file sharing. And Folder Lock offers myriad ways to encrypt and share your files. These two are our Editors’ Choice winners for encryption.
What Is Encryption?
In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," Holmes and Watson encounter a series of curious drawings, rows upon rows of dancing stick figures in different poses. Holmes deduces that each pose represents a letter and cracks the code by matching the most common poses with the most common letters. Indeed, a simple substitution cipher like this almost always caves to the kind of frequency analysis Holmes used.
Had modern cryptographic algorithms been available to the crooks in this tale, Holmes would have been out of luck. Unless you have the password, there's no way to decrypt a modern encrypted document. No, you can't just try every possible decryption key. With current computers, you wouldn’t finish before the sun goes nova.
In 2001, the US government settled on Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) as its official algorithm, replacing the less secure Data Encryption Standard (DES). With even more data bits in its main security key, Bruce Schneier's Blowfish algorithm should still be more secure. EncryptionSafe wisely relies on AES.
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You might be familiar with the idea of symmetric encryption, where the same password or key encrypts and decrypts a file. AES, Blowfish, and many other common algorithms are symmetric. With this kind of algorithm, you must keep the password a deep, dark secret and only share it via secure channels. But there's another way. In a public key infrastructure (PKI) system, each user gets two keys, one public and one private. If I want to send you a file, I look up your public key and use it for encryption; you decrypt it with your private key. Public key cryptography is less common in small-scale encryption utilities like EncryptionSafe.
How Much Does EncryptionSafe Pro Cost?
The starting price for EncryptionSafe is exactly zero. You can install and use the program at no charge. The free edition lets you encrypt files and folders, as described below. It includes the option to save encrypted details of personal IDs such as driver’s licenses and passports. If that’s all you need, no payment is required. Encrypto also gives you the basics of encryption at no charge.
Paying the one-time fee of $19.95 gets you licenses to use EncryptionSafe Pro on five devices. The Pro edition adds multi-factor authentication, secure sharing of encrypted files, and file shredding. Steganos Safe also gives you five licenses, though it costs more at $34.95.
Most competing products cost more for a single license than EncryptionSafe’s five-license fee. For example, Folder Lock goes for $39.95, and you pay $49.95 for Advanced Encryption Package.
With antivirus and security suites, you typically sign up for a yearly subscription. That’s less common in encryption tools. Most of them, including those mentioned above, charge a one-time fee. AxCrypt Premium and NordLocker are exceptions, at $45 per year and $35.88 per year, respectively.
Getting Started With EncryptionSafe
The EncryptionSafe download is small, and the program installs quickly. At the end of the installation, the app requests permission to gather anonymized usage data to improve itself. You don’t have to agree to this provision; I didn’t.
Next, you create a strong master password that protects all your encrypted files. It should be something that you can remember easily but that nobody else could guess. If you forget this password, you lose access to all your encrypted files, so I advise storing it in your password manager. No password manager? You should read up on why you need one.
That’s it for setup. From now on, all you need do is drop a file or folder on the EncryptionSafe window or click the big plus button and select a file or folder.
When you first start using EncryptionSafe, it pops up a few explanatory tips. For example, it explains that a green closed padlock next to a file means it’s encrypted, while a red open padlock means it’s not. Clicking the open padlock re-locks the file.
Note that EncryptionSafe won’t encrypt certain file types, particularly EXE, DLL, and COM files. A contact for the company explained that since the app eliminates the originals as part of the encryption process, users can cause harm by encrypting such files. For safety, the app won’t touch those files.
Are Your Files Inside EncryptionSafe?
EncryptionSafe’s main window lists your encrypted files and folders. You might think it’s an encrypted storage vault, like what’s created by CryptoExpert, Steganos Safe, or Cryptainer Personal. But in fact, the contents are not “in” the safe at all. Rather, it serves as an index to let you find all the files you’ve encrypted.
Double-click a file from the list, and the app quickly decrypts it and opens the plaintext file. It also changes the file’s icon from a green locked padlock to a red open one to show that it’s no longer encrypted. When you’ve saved any changes to the file, you click the red padlock icon to lock it back up.
When you double-click a folder in the list, EncryptionSafe simply opens the folder in Windows Explorer. That’s because it does nothing to the folders themselves, only to the files they contain. Removing a folder from the list automatically decrypts its files. Note, too, that as long as EncryptionSafe is running, any file you add to an encrypted folder automatically gets encrypted.
Files processed by EncryptionSafe gain the file extension .encrypted, tacked on after the existing file extension. Launching such a file opens EncryptionSafe to decrypt it. If you’re not logged in, you’ll need to log in with the master password.
Protecting the Originals in EncryptionSafe
When you encrypt a document, protecting the plaintext original is essential, and merely deleting it may not be sufficient protection. Even if you bypass the Recycle Bin, forensic software can recover deleted files. EncryptionSafe builds a modicum of secure deletion into the encryption process. During encryption, it overwrites the plaintext original with the encrypted version. CryptoForge does something similar.
This simple overwrite technique is convenient and requires no effort on your part. It might not stand up to hardware-based forensic recovery, but unless your documents involve world-shattering secrets, that shouldn’t be a worry. EncryptionSafe’s more full-featured file shredding feature, formerly available for free, now requires a Pro upgrade.
Keeping Personal IDs Secure With EncryptionSafe
In addition to encrypting files and folders, EncryptionSafe can maintain encrypted copies of personal IDs in five categories: Passport, Social Security, Driving License, Credit Cards, and Bank Accounts. Clicking one of the ID types brings up a data entry dialog with appropriate fields.
I was confused at first by the top field’s title, “File name.” A representative for EncryptionSafe explained that this is just the title for the encrypted entry. You do have the option to save one or more files along with the entry. For example, you might enhance your saved passport data with a scanned image of the passport.
This is just a local encrypted copy of your ID information. Some password managers include a similar feature but with entries shared across your devices. With Dashlane, for example, you can enter ID data on your PC and then use it on your mobile devices or other PCs. Dashlane even supplies a nice-looking mockup of your ID or credit card. Since EncryptionSafe is strictly local, your encrypted IDs reside only on the PC where you created them.
Changing the Master Password in EncryptionSafe
What if you accidentally expose your master password or discover that an account where you use the same password (don’t do that!) has been breached? EncryptionSafe can handle changing the master password, but it’s a big deal.
When you invoke the option to change the master password, you get a big warning that the process may take a while, that it can’t be canceled, and that you must not shut down or restart the computer because you risk losing your data. As far as I can see, what happens is that EncryptionSafe goes through all your files, decrypting them with the old password and re-encrypting them with the new one. It handled the few dozen encrypted files on my test system in a flash.
What Do You Get By Upgrading EncryptionSafe?
Everything I’ve described so far is part of the totally free edition of EncryptionSafe. When you invest in the inexpensive Pro edition, you get three specific (and useful) enhancements: multi-factor authentication, secure sharing, and full-scale secure deletion. If you try to use these features in the free edition, you just get a notification that they’re not available, along with a link to register a paid copy.
Registration is a simple matter of entering the license key you received when purchasing the software. Didn’t buy it yet? There’s a handy link to take care of that omission.
Multi-Factor Authentication
You can use the longest, most cryptic password in the world, but if a hacker somehow gets hold of it, your security is ruined. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) seriously strengthens your security by requiring more than just a password for access. MFA typically combines two of these three factors: something you know (a password), something you have (a security key or app), or something you are (biometrics).
Like Steganos Safe and NordLocker, EncryptionSafe includes MFA using Google Authenticator or a compatible authenticator app. Just snap the QR code with your mobile authentication app to set it up. The QR code popup also includes a lengthy alphanumeric key, and recommends you keep a copy of that key in case you lose your authenticator app.
CryptoExpert and Advanced Encryption Package can configure a USB key to act as a physical authenticator. NordLocker also supports authentication using any FIDO-compatible security key. The free Encrypto app lacks MFA support, but that makes more sense, given its emphasis on sharing encrypted files.
Secure Sharing for Encrypted Files
With the free edition of EncryptionSafe, you protect files on your computer, nowhere else. You can’t easily move encrypted files between PCs, and there’s no provision for initiating sharing. Upgrading to Pro gives you the ability to share files with trusted recipients.
To start, click the Share icon near the top right corner of the main window and click the Share Files button on the resulting screen. You now see a list of your encrypted files, folders, and IDs (though only files can be shared). Check the box for files you want to share and click Next. The next page redundantly lists the files you chose and asks for confirmation; click Next again. For a single file, it’s easier to click the three-dot menu icon and select Share; this takes you straight to password creation.
When you click Next again, EncryptionSafe directs you to create a sharing password, one that’s different from your master password. With that done, it creates encrypted copies of the files in the Share folder with a link to open that folder. Another link copies the sharing password to the clipboard. It’s now up to you to share the encrypted files using email, a file-sharing service, or whatever means suits you. You separately share the password, perhaps using a secure messaging utility.
The recipient does need to install EncryptionSafe, but the free edition is fine for receiving encrypted files. The decryption password is only needed once. Thereafter, any encryption will use the recipient’s master password.
AxCrypt and NordLocker also make sharing encrypted files simple; AxCrypt uses PKI under the hood. The recipient must have a copy of the app running to read the file, but like EncryptionSafe, both AxCrypt and NordLocker make a free version available. Advanced Encryption Package also permits sharing using PKI but leaves the user to manage the sometimes-awkward key exchange.
Folder Lock, Cryptainer Personal, and Secure IT are among the tools that can turn a file into a self-decrypting executable. You just need to share that executable with the recipient and send the password using a different channel.
The free Encrypto app is almost as simple as EncryptionSafe and well-suited to sharing files. With Encrypto, each encrypted file or folder has its own password and password hint. You just transmit the encrypted file to your recipient and send them the password by a different channel.
File Shredding for Secure Deletion
If your encrypted data is sufficiently sensitive, you need a tool to securely delete the original, thereby foiling recovery software. AxCrypt, FolderLock, and Secure IT are among the apps that include a secure deletion shredder component for this purpose. Advanced Encryption Package kicks it up a notch, letting you choose from a confusing array of different deletion algorithms, some of them created or approved by various governments.
Most such tools let you shred any arbitrary file. Typically you’d create an encrypted copy and then shred the original. With EncryptionSafe, you can only shred a file that’s in the main file list, whether or not it’s currently encrypted. There’s no option to keep the encrypted version and shred the original.
When you click the three-dot menu icon next to any file in EncryptionSafe's list, whether encrypted or not, the resulting menu includes a Delete option. Selecting that option gives you a choice. You can Shred the item, meaning securely delete it permanently from your PC, or Remove it. The latter option simply removes the file from the list, decrypting it first if necessary.
Note that some competing tools offer more comprehensive secure deletion services. Steganos Safe and Folder Lock are among those that can shred a drive’s free space, which effectively applies secure deletion to already deleted files. Secure IT and Advanced Encryption Package wipe out elements beyond the file's data such as the filename and alternate data streams. And as noted, most of them allow shredding of any file or folder, without first bringing it into the encryption system.
Verdict: Easy Encryption at Your Fingertips
Drop a file in EncryptionSafe, and it’s instantly encrypted. Drop a folder, and EncryptionSafe protects all the files within. Decrypting a file to edit it is as easy as double-clicking. This app makes local encryption of your sensitive files easy and free. An inexpensive upgrade adds MFA, secure sharing, and file shredding. However, two other products are our Editors' Choice winners in the encryption realm: AxCrypt Premium and Folder Lock. The simple interface of portable, cross-platform AxCrypt Premium hides high-tech encryption features, including PKI, and it’s good at file shredding and secure sharing. With Folder Lock, you turn a file into a self-decrypting program, create encrypted file storage containers, securely delete original files, and more.
You can’t get simpler than EncryptionSafe's drag-and-drop encryption. It offers the basics for free, and even the feature-enhanced Pro edition is quite inexpensive.
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